


RED FLAVOR! ( joyri story )

by ramkingvevo



Category: Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: Adolescent Sexuality, Best Friends, Coming of Age, F/F, Fanfiction, Female Characters, Female Friendship, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Innocence, Kim Yeri - Freeform, Kim Yerim - Freeform, Kpop Girls, Kpop fanfic, Kpop fanfiction - Freeform, Kpop idols - Freeform, LGBTQ, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Female Character, LGBTQ Themes, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Romance, Love, Park Joy, Red Velvet, Red Velvet Ship, Rich Kim Yerim, Romance, Strong Female Characters, Wealthy Character, bae joohyun, girlxgirl, good girl, joyri - Freeform, kpop girl group, park sooyoung - Freeform, trust fund baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 20:31:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20954486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ramkingvevo/pseuds/ramkingvevo
Summary: ❝ EVEN IF THE WORLD HURTS YOU AND DECEIVES YOU, I'LL EMBRACE YOU. . . ❞Kim Yerim is a clean cut high school student from a wealthy family. Her grades are above average, she holds a spot on her school's student council, she writes for the school newspaper, and her image can often be seen on jewelry ads, as she's the face of her mother's hand-crafted collection. She's kind, charming, and charismatic, and she's never had trouble making friends.Park Joy is very much so her opposite. Living with a single mother, she spends her evenings working at a rundown diner in the heart of the lower side district she resides in to help make ends meet. She's intelligent, but has very little time to focus on her school work, which reflects very poorly on her grades. She often comes off as cold and uncaring, which makes it difficult for her to socialize and form bonds with people, and because of this, she often feels very lonely.But when the universe brings the two girls together, the strings of their separate fates intertwine, creating an unlikely dynamic that teeters on the boundary of being "just friends", and leaves both of them questioning who they are, as well as who they want to be.





	1. ❝ONE.❞

**Author's Note:**

> ― opinions and constructive criticism are always welcome, so please feel free to leave me a comment!

The lower side district of the city became a terrifying place to be after the sun set behind the lowly buildings of the area. Yeri had never been one to fear the darkness, but as she walked along the sidewalk of a part of her very own city that she very rarely even acknowledged the existence of, she couldn't help but to feel frightened and unnerved. She pulled her jacket around her a bit tighter, grimacing when a chilly gust of wind swept by her and sent chills up the length of her spine. Internally, she cursed herself for staying behind to help clean up the soup kitchen after dinner service was finished instead of simply leaving when her friends did in order to walk home with them.

Unfortunately, it was far too late for that, as it was pushing eleven o'clock at night whilst Wendy, Seulgi, and Irene had left together an hour or two prior, leaving Yeri to make the trek back to the upper side district all on her own. Coming from a wealthy family, the seventeen year old had never had to live like the residents of the lower side. . . In fact, she came from a place of great privilege due to her father's job as a psychiatrist and her mother's occupation as a jewelry designer. Unlike some, however, Yeri was by no means oblivious to how good life was for her, and she tried her hardest to never take that for granted.

She studied diligently as to never disgrace the opportunity she'd gotten to attend one of the most highly praised private schools in the country. She attended every student council meeting, she wrote each article for the school's newspaper with great care, and she always made an effort to be kind to everyone, even if the sentiment wasn't always rewarded with graciousness or smiles. In all reality, Yeri didn't have a clue as to what it was like for anyone in the lower side of the city. She'd never known the struggle of having to choose between having dinner or having the money to keep the heat on inside of her home.

In terms of finances, she'd never known a struggle at all.

That realization was very, very eye opening for her, and it made her that much more thankful for the way in which she'd been raised and for the environment she's been lucky enough to be born into. Most of her friends were just as well off as she was, and that didn't make for much diversity in the social classes of her peers. It ranged from wealthy to extremely wealthy, and that was about as much variety as she was exposed to. But her experience working in a soup kitchen in the lower side district of the city was nothing short of sobering for her in every sense of the word.

It put things into perspective for her, and it helped her to understand that people within her very own city were struggling day in and day out to have even a single meal per day and still be able to make ends meet. That made her heart ache, and Yeri couldn't help but to wish that she could help every last person in the city who needed it. Sadly, that was a bit of a stretch for a seventeen year old high school student, and she came to the conclusion that she would just have to settle for giving and helping whenever she possibly could from that point onward.

With a small sigh, Yeri attempted to curl into her jacket a bit more, hoping that it would provide her with the warmth that her goosebump ridden skin was calling out for so desperately. Unfortunately, the fabric frankly wasn't anywhere near thick enough to fully protect her from the frigid autumn air. Thankfully, there was a small, rundown diner within the lower side of the city that had yet to lock their doors for the night, and Yeri was quick to scurry across the desolate street that was poorly illuminated by a flickering streetlamp and make her way through the entrance.

A bell rang out as she pushed the glass door open, alerting the two females in the back of her presence in their establishment. One of them looked to be in her early to mid thirties, with a face of subtle makeup and her hair tied up in a bun that sat messily on the top of her head. Yeri could tell that the woman was tired after a long day of work, as it was written all over her face, and the brunette instantly felt guilty for walking in at such a late hour and stirring up more tasks for the diner employees.

"Sorry," the woman spoke up, doing her best to hide the tiredness in her voice, "we're closing up for the night."

"Oh," the sound fell from Yeri's lips without thought, "I'm sorry. I should've paid better attention to-"

"I can serve her, Seoyeon," the second girl piped up from behind the counter, raising her head for the first time since Yeri had entered the diner.

Her hair was long and black, and the female let it fall uncaringly down her shoulders. It was roughly the same length that Yeri's own had been approximately a month prior before she decided to get it cut just at her shoulders as a means of switching up her appearance for back to school.

"Just leave the keys with me and I'll lock up as soon as I'm done."

The older woman pursed her lips into a tight line, clearly questioning whether or not that was a good idea. Yeri watched as her eyes darted between the door and the girl that had offered to close the diner up that night, and the brunette shifted awkwardly on her feet because of the slightly uncomfortable atmosphere that she'd accidentally created.

". . . alright," Seoyeon sighed, "but be sure to lock the door. You know how this neighborhood can be at night."

The raven haired female nodded in confirmation.

"I know," she assured, "I'll make sure the diner is locked up before I leave, promise."

With that said, the keys were exchanged between the two pairs of hands, and the older woman wasted little to no time in ushering herself out the door, probably looking forward to crashing in her bed and sleeping as soon as she possibly could.

"So, what can I get for you? A cup of coffee? A hot chocolate?" The raven haired female inquired, pulling Yeri's gaze away from the door and back to where she was standing.

The girl was incredibly pretty, and naturally so. She didn't look as if she had any makeup on whatsoever, and all that adorned her body was a pair of faded blue jeans and a black long sleeved shirt. Yet, even with such simple attire, Yeri couldn't help but to notice how beautiful the female was.

"A hot chocolate would be nice, thank you," the brunette answered, deciding on the latter option because drinking caffeine so late at night didn't seem as if it would be the best idea.

Yeri pulled her wallet out, peeling open the pocket where she kept her money as she returned her gaze to the girl standing in front of her.

"Would you like one too?"

Joy hesitated greatly. As someone who knew just how hard life could be, and just how important every last penny was at the end of every month, she had never been keen on accepting handouts from anyone. There was also the fact that she was quite the independent minded individual, and she liked to work for everything in order to know that she earned it by her own means.

However, that mindset quickly changed when Joy noticed what school uniform Yeri was wearing. The sleek, perfectly hemmed black skirt with a white button-up shirt, a black tie, and a black blazer coat gave her away immediately, and with Joy knowing very well how expensive the school that those uniforms belonged to was, she hardly felt bad about taking a singular cup of hot chocolate from a girl that was likely to be very well off in finances.

"Sure," Joy answered, "I'd like that. Thanks."

Yeri paid for the both of their drinks, not bothering with the change that she was supposed to receive back. Instead, she told Joy to keep it, which the taller female was very, very appreciative of. Quickly, she whipped up two cups of hot chocolate, moving swiftly so that she could return home as soon as the both of them had finished their drinks. Instead of standing around and not speaking to one another, which would undoubtedly make for severe awkward tension that neither of them particularly wanted to deal with, they each sat down at one of the many empty booths that were scattered about the diner's customer area.

"So," Joy took a small sip of her drink, swallowing it down quickly, leaving Yeri to question how she'd been able to do so when the liquid was still so incredibly hot, "your school uniform. . . It's from the private school in the upper side district of the city, isn't it?"

"Mhm," the shorter female nodded her head in confirmation, "it's my third year attending that high school. It's a great school, in my opinion, at least."

"I've heard that it's one of the top rated schools in the country, so I'd always just assumed that it would be a pretty nice place to attend. I've never spoken to anyone from there as far as I know, though. We don't see many upper city residents coming around here," Joy explained.

While Yeri was apparently a junior in high school, Joy was a senior student at a much less prestigious school. Things were subpar there at the very most, the food was always bland and practically inedible, the cleanliness was often lacking at times, and the school uniforms were cheap, ugly, and worst of all, uncomfortable. It was sad considering the fact that Joy had the grades to attend the same school that Yeri was currently enrolled at, and she would have been there focusing on her studies if it wasn't for the fact that she couldn't afford to attend a place such as that.

She'd taken the admission test at the end of her eighth grade year on a whim. She never expected to pass, and she certainly didn't expect to get a nearly perfect score, but that was exactly what happened. Joy passed with flying colors, and she received a letter from the Board of Education telling her that she would be a perfect fit for enrollment. . . But, then she saw the tuition fees, and all of her hopes for attending that school completely went down the drain.

"Well, there's a first time for everything, right?" Yeri giggled, flashing Joy a charming smile that nearly had her mimicking the action on sight.

"Yeah," the older female stated softly, "I guess there is."

Joy didn't need to wonder why she'd never spoken to a student from the upper side. Frankly, she even acknowledged herself that if she was well off and residing in that district instead of the lower one, that she would never bother to venture into the much less pleasant side of the city. There would be nothing there for her, and that practically went without saying, so the raven haired girl couldn't help but to wonder why Yeri was there in the first place, nonetheless why she was there so late at night.

"I don't mean to sound rude when I ask this," Joy prefaced, "but. . . Why are you in this district of the city?"

"My friends and I were working at the soup kitchen a few minutes away from here. I would've walked back home with them, but I decided to stay back and help the others clean up, so I'm here a few hours later than what I planned," Yeri explained, finally bringing the cup to her lips and taking a sip of the liquid inside of it.

It was evident that the hot chocolate had been watered down a great deal, but the brunette said nothing of it. She understood that it was most likely for the purpose of saving money wherever they could, and if that meant that she would have to drink some less than pleasant chocolate water in order to support a local business, then that was that and she had no complaints in doing so.

"I volunteer there on Friday afternoons after I get out of school," Joy said.

"It was nice of you and your friends to come all the way from the upper side to do that for the community around here."

"It was nothing," the younger female replied, "it was the least I could do, I think. I've never really been in the lower side district before today, so I've never know what it's like on this end of things. I feel like I've been blind to everything for so long. . . I wish that I could fix everything and make everyone here happy."

That type of sentiment wasn't one that typically touched Joy's heart or messed with its strings by any means whatsoever. Frankly, she'd found that, on most occasions, when people say something like that, it's a belief brought about by drastic emotions, and once those emotions subside and things return to normal for them, the idea of doing whatever they can to help the less fortunate tends to be muddled by other, more prominent things in ones life.

But, with Yeri, there was a genuine nature to the way she spoke. She didn't make any empty promises or swear to do unreasonable things, she simply stated that she wished she could make people happy, and that rubbed Joy in all the right ways.

"I wish I could do that too," the older female responded, a bit of sadness lacing her words, "but, it's not all bad here. This place definitely has its ups and downs, but it's helped me to become the person I am now, and it instilled a work ethic in me, and that's something I'm thankful for."

Yeri couldn't help but to recognize that the raven haired female was doing her very best to look on the bright side of things, even in a situation that would have seemed very bleak to the vast majority of people.

"That's a really nice way of looking at it," the younger girl smiled once again.

Joy returned the gesture the second time around.

"I'm Yerim, by the way. You can just call me Yeri though," the brunette gleamed, realizing that they'd yet to introduce themselves to one another properly.

The elder female couldn't help but to be taken with Yeri. She had a warm personality, one that felt like a cozy blanket on a cold winter's night. She spoke with _confidence_, but not with _arrogance_, and she was very clearly a sweet person in every right. Being as guarded as she was, Joy very rarely ventured to assume the best about the people around her, but with Yeri, it was practically impossible for her to think that the brunette was anything other than a good, genuine person.

She just hoped that her instincts wouldn't lead her astray this time around.

"I'm Joy," the raven haired girl replied, that small smile still tugging at the corners of her lips, "it's nice to meet you."

✦

"Wait, so, you're ditching us to hang out on the lower side? For what? There's nothing to do there, Yeri," Seulgi stated flatly.

"Don't be dramatic," the younger girl replied, rolling her eyes at her friend, "I'm not _ditching_ anyone. I see you guys everyday. Joy and I only have the time to see each other once a week. Besides, the lower side might be boring, but I'm not going there to shop or anything; -I'm going there to see Joy. It doesn't matter to me whether the city is fun or not. _She's_ fun, and I'm excited to see her."

"Don't worry about it," Wendy brushed things off, "you can always come with us next time. If you want to go see your friend, you should. I'm sure Joy is looking forward to seeing you too."

Yeri smiled at the redhead gratefully. Those words reminded her of exactly why Wendy was the one in their friend group that was known for being the peacemaker.

"Okay then," Yeri grabbed her bag from her locker, replacing the space the removing of the backpack had made with her calculus textbook, "I'll see you guys later. It'll take me a bit to walk there, and I want to have as much time with Joy as I can."

"We should get going too," Irene noted, "the movie will be starting soon, and I'm not sitting down without a soda. I hope you have fun though, Yeri."

"You too," the brunette replied politely, choosing to rush out of the school a bit quicker than what was really needed.

That Friday afternoon made for the third time that Yeri would be seeing Joy since they first came into contact at the diner. Communication between them was quite difficult, and extremely scarce, as the older female didn't have a cell phone. Joy couldn't fit one into her budget, and frankly, a cellular device was on the bottom of her essential needs list. She much preferred to have food for both herself and her mother to eat, and if that meant that her entire paycheck would have to go towards groceries on most months, then that's exactly what would happen.

Though Joy was still a relatively new friend of Yeri's, the younger girl couldn't help but to feel like she'd known the elder female for much longer than that. The two of them, as different as they undeniably were, went well together; -somehow, some way.

With Yeri's girly charm, her charismatic nature, and her infectious bubbliness, she managed to weasel her way into Joy's good graces, making even the raven haired girl, who wasn't known for having many friends, fall for her in more ways than one.

And, in that same manner, Joy drew Yeri in with her cool, calm, and collected demeanor that so often pushed people away. However, the brunette wasn't one of the individuals that chose to blatantly judge Joy and disregard her based on her guarded nature. Though she clearly couldn't understand it fully, Yeri could comprehend why Joy wasn't the most fond of getting close to people. There had been hurt and betrayal somewhere along the line, and even though the older girl had yet to divulge all the details to her properly, Yeri has long since come to the conclusion that it wasn't for her to know in the first place.

No matter the secrets they kept from one another, there was a sense of comfort that came from being with someone that was so glaringly different to one's own self. Though Yeri had found a close friendship within Irene, Wendy, and Seulgi; -they were a bit too much like her for the younger female to express her most honest feelings around them. She entrusted them with most of her worries and doubts, but there were some things that she only felt comfortable enough to share with Joy.

Coming from where she did, it was clear that the older girl wouldn't judge anyone at all, because she herself knew what it was like to be looked down upon and ridiculed. Even amongst the lower side residents, who were very far from wealthy, or even middle class, Joy was still at the very bottom of the totem pole. She'd been pulling her own weight in society since she was a freshman in high school; -working hard to make money, and working hard to keep her grades decent enough to pass through the levels of school. It was often a bleak, and characteristically dismal reality, but there was nothing that could be done about it, so she worked with what she had.

Not even her pretty face could save her from the sloppy rumor mill of high school, though. On more than one occasion, she'd been asked if she was a prostitute, which angered her for an atypical reason. It wasn't that she didn't want to be seen as a sex worker, because frankly, Joy didn't care what people thought about her since none of them had ever bothered to get to know her as a person in the first place. They simply made judgments based on her living and financial circumstances, leading her to come to the conclusion that she didn't want friends like that anyway.

No, the reason those types of questions made her so upset was because of the stigma that came along with them. It made her sick to her stomach to think that someone in a position like hers may be selling their body and putting their own lives in danger on the streets of the lower side district all as a means of having enough money to survive in a world that was run by paper and coins, only to be met with snide comments and judgment from people that had no right to do so anyway. It broke Joy's heart to think that a person could be going through one of the roughest times of their life, only to be met with ridicule, harassment, and torment from those that surrounded them.

She didn't deserve that, and neither did anyone else. . .

But, at the end of the day, that was high school. Rumors would come and go, and while Joy may have been the hot topic of conversation for a few days out of any given week throughout the year, she knew that it wouldn't last for long. In the stages of later adolescence, nothing stays the same forever. Some people grow up and move on from speaking ill of others behind their backs, and others stay in that immature mindset, only it becomes slightly easier for those around them because of the scatterbrained side effects of puberty.

Either way, Joy adapted to her surroundings. She never spoke badly of anyone when they weren't around to hear every word of it, she never bothered to insert herself into pointless high school drama, and she decided that it was in her best interest to stick to being a wallflower. The quieter she was, the more invisible she became to her classmates, which was a blessing to her as far as the raven haired female was concerned. Of course, there were times when her name was dragged out of the shadows and into the spotlight for the gossip hungry students around her, but Joy had also learned how to ride those waves and go with the flow, which made her life a lot easier in the long run.

Placing her tattered school bag aside, she rolled up the sleeves of her shirt a bit as she went about slicing proportional pieces of cherry pie and setting them on their own individual plates.

"Need any help?" A cheerful voice inquired, causing Joy to raise her head and meet Yeri's sparkling eyes.

The raven haired female couldn't help but to smile. Despite the brunette showing up each Friday afternoon to help out at the local soup kitchen, the elder girl simply didn't think that that trend would last for very long. However, Yeri proved her wrong (at least for another week), as she was standing right in front of her, ready and willing to contribute anywhere she could.

"Grab a knife," Joy answered, moving over a bit in order to make room for the younger female.

Yeri did as she was asked, and she mimicked her friend's movements to the best of her abilities, although Joy was undeniably better at the process due to her experience working in a diner that sold pieces of pie on the daily.

"So," Yeri decided to spark up a conversation between the two of them whilst they worked, "where do you want to go after we're done here?"

Joy had to stop and think about it for a few moments. After all, she hadn't planned on seeing the shorter female that afternoon, and therefore, she'd been assuming that she would just be crawling into bed as soon as the soup kitchen closed for the night. But, now that the brunette was standing right beside of her, those plans were going to be changed (for the better.)

"Well, I think we both know that there really isn't much to do around here," Joy replied.

"But. . . I guess that we could head over to the park, if that's something you'd like to do."

"That sounds fun," Yeri beamed, but her happiness wasn't to be attributed to the location in itself, -it was to be attributed to the person in which she would be there with.

From that point, the two females worked hard to serve each person that walked into the soup kitchen. They made sure to give everyone a generous serving of all the foods, and they relished in the glimmering eyes and thankful smiles of the grateful patrons who'd, without a doubt, been waiting all day long to intake a balanced meal. Each person had their fill, and not a single one of them left feeling hungry, which made both Joy and Yeri feel a sense of elation. Nobody was going to have to leave without getting something to eat. . .

"Thank you for coming again, Yeri," Haneul said to the brunette, a tired, lopsided smile on his face.

He was the owner of the soup kitchen, and he worked unbelievably hard to care for the people in his community. He was the type of individual that both of the girls wanted to be seen as one day; -selfless, giving, and kind.

"It was nothing," Yeri replied, tucking a few loose strands of hair behind her ear, "I'm glad to help out around here whenever I can."

"Do you need a few extra hands to help clean up tonight?" Joy inquired, reaching atop her head in order to pull her hair tie out, letting her raven colored locks tumble down her shoulders and back messily.

"No, I think we've got things covered for the night," Haneul responded, "but, thank you for offering. It's Friday night, and you two are young, so go enjoy yourselves. Just remember to be careful and stay out of trouble."

"Will do," Joy assured, "I'll see you next Friday."

After exchanging small waves, both girls left the soup kitchen and began to walk down the cracked sidewalk of the lower side district in order to make their way to the park. Yeri had yet to go there, but she was actually quite excited to see what it would look like. Of course, she wasn't expecting anything magnificent, as she was now more than well aware of the financial struggles of the lower district, but nevertheless, the brunette was looking forward to seeing a new place for the first time.

"Do you go to the park very often?" Yeri inquired, stealing a glance at the elder female walking beside of her.

Her tender beige skin was illuminated by the light spilling down from the hands of the moon in the sky overhead. Once more, Yeri couldn't help but to make note of just how gorgeous Joy truly was. However, on that night, she looked even more stunning than usual in the younger girl's eyes, simply because they'd been getting to know one another more, and that made for a look into the taller female's beautiful heart of gold.

"Uh, no actually, I usually don't have the time. I work a lot, and when I'm not working I'm trying to get caught up on school assignments or sleep," Joy explained, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her jeans in order to keep them warm.

"But, I like to go to the park when I can. It's like. . . Like, a little getaway for me, if that makes any sense. For as long as I'm there, alone with the stars and the moon, I feel safe and accepted. Almost like nothing could hurt me."

Just from those words alone, Yeri could tell that that particular location was important for Joy to have in her life, and because of that, the younger female was glad that the park existed. She wanted nothing more than for the elder female to have, at the very least, one place within the lower side district where in which she could feel calm and relaxed.

As expected, it was nothing spectacular. There was a worn out playground that consisted of a few rusty swings, a rickety metal slide, and a set of monkey bars that Yeri wouldn't dare to climb at the risk of breaking one of her arms or legs. Frankly, it was exactly the type of playground that was expected to be constructed in a place that was so low on finances. Aside from the lackluster playground, however, there was also a nicely sized section of land that was void of all other people besides Joy and Yeri.

"I know that it's not much," the elder female said, "but, this was the only place that I could really think of. There's not really anywhere else to go around here."

"I don't mind," Yeri assured with a soft, sheepish smile that Joy didn't even get to see, "anywhere we go is fine with me, just as long as I'm with you."

The raven haired girl was almost positive the she'd heard those words wrong. Nobody had ever said anything like that to her, so she thought that she had to have been mistaken. However, in order to preserve the feeling, she kept her lips shut and just went with it. Even if it wasn't real, she wanted to hang onto the warmth that spread rapidly throughout her veins, and in order to do so, she refused to stand corrected.

However, Yeri took her silence as a bad sign, assuming that Joy hadn't said anything in response because she felt like the brunette was coming on too strong, and Yeri cursed herself for daring to cross that line. With the red tinge of embarrassment very evident on her cheeks, she looked towards the ground and followed behind the elder female in silence from there, as she didn't want to say anything else that might make things awkward between them.

The younger female very much so enjoyed the feeling of security she got when she was with Joy, and she wasn't read to give that up just yet, and especially not over a couple of silly comments that she knew she should have kept to herself in the first place.

They sat down on a random section of grass, and before things could fall silent and become awkward between them, Joy dared to speak up and ask about something she was curious about for more reasons than one.

"How come you always come to work at the soup kitchen on the afternoons that I'm there too?" She questioned, doing her best to not come off as rude, because she certainly wasn't trying to discourage the brunette from coming to help out.

"Well. . . When we met, you told me that you go there on Friday afternoons, and I just thought that maybe you could use some company while you were there. I thought you were cool, and I wanted to get to know you better. But, if you don't like that, I can always come to volunteer on a different day," Yeri stated, although that prospect saddened her a bit more than she ever realized that it could.

"No!" Joy blurted out quickly.

She couldn't stop herself from doing so. There was just something about being around Yeri that gave her an unbelievable sense of normalcy and confidence, and the raven haired girl didn't want to lose those feelings just yet. Joy was at a point in her life where in which she needed to feel as if she was important to someone, as her mother was far too busy to give her the affection that she craved, and before Yeri came around, Joy had been too scared to reach out for closeness in any other person.

"No. . . It's fine, I promise. I. . . I like the company, and I like having you around. Even though I'm sure that I don't say it like I should, because I'm not the best with words or with emotions. I know that I don't do a good job at expressing how I feel, and that can be really confusing for you I'm sure; -but, right here and right now, I'm telling you that I really enjoy you being in my life."

Yeri was taken aback by that, but still, she smiled lustrously. Joy might not have been the best at telling others how she felt, but her brief monologue had been more than enough to make the younger girl feel assured within herself. Under the stars and the moon, Yeri's chestnut gaze flickered between Joy's chocolate eyes and her blush pink lips. The brunette had never considered kissing another girl. . . It was never something that she felt would be right for her or her heart, but within that moment in time, Yeri was drawn to Joy in a unique way; -in a manner that she'd never felt before in her seventeen years on the planet of Earth.

She'd had boyfriends here and there, but not a single one of them, nor any of her crushes, had ever given her the kind of feeling that Joy did. It was absolutely incomparable.

"I almost forgot something," Yeri forced her gaze away before she did something that she greatly suspected she would regret, "I got you something."

The brunette reached for her bag, pulling it into her lap as she unzipped it.

"You didn't have to get me anything, Yeri," Joy stated, feeling a bit of guilt sink into her chest.

"Well, I already bought it, so it'd be a real shame to see it go to waste," the shorter female responded with a small giggle as she pulled a medium sized box from her backpack that was neatly wrapped in baby pink paper.

Joy hesitantly took the gift, her eyes bouncing between the pink paper and Yeri's doll-like face. The younger girl's eyes were practically boring into her, desperately waiting to see the reaction that her friend would have to the present that she'd picked out for her.

"Please tell me that this isn't anything expensive," Joy stated, "I don't want you to feel like you have to waste money on me just because I'm poor."

Yeri's face faltered a bit because she hadn't been expecting those words to come out of the raven haired female's mouth.

"That's. . . That's not. . . Joy, I care about you, okay? We're friends, and friends can buy each other presents. I don't care if you're poor, or if you're middle class, or if you're super wealthy; -none of that matters to me, and when I choose my friends, the amount of money they have means nothing. I bought you a gift because it's something that I think you deserve to have, and I had more than enough money to do it," Yeri insisted.

"I just don't want you to see me as a charity case," Joy stated, hints of dolefulness injecting themselves into every last syllable she choked out.

The shorter girl was absolutely stunned by that reply. She wasn't expecting for everything to take such a sharp and unexpected turn, but in a way, it seemed like a good thing, because the night was giving the both of them equal opportunities to express their true feelings and open up to one another a bit more.

"I don't see you as a charity case, Joy," Yeri responded firmly, putting on a very serious tone of voice that was slightly odd to hear, especially coming from an incredibly upbeat girl like her.

"I see you as a hard worker who deserves so much more than what the world has given to you. No matter how much or how little we know each other, I know that I want you to be happy, and I want to make this life easier for you in any way that I can. I want you to have the privileges that I do, I want you to have the comfort that I have, -but we both know that I can't do that completely. So, I'm settling for what I can do, and this is as good of a start as any."

After hearing those words, Joy didn't dare to question anything else. She simply lowered her head a bit as her long, slender finger picked at the corner of the the thin wrapping paper that concealed her present inside of it. Just as Yeri had said, the item was already purchased, and it would be much more inappropriate to let it go to waste than it would be to take it and cherish it.

Peeling the wrapping away, Joy's jaw dropped open in astonishment. The younger female had purchased her a brand new cellphone, and customized phone case to go along with it.

"Do you like it?" Yeri inquired, attempting to peer at the elder female's face in order to gauge her reaction, but the darkness around them made it hard to tell what expression was painted across Joy's angelic features.

"Yeri, I. . . I don't even know what to say other than thank you so, _so_ much. This must have cost you a fortune," the raven haired girl finally replied, looking up at her friend with the eyes of a deer that had been caught in the headlights of an oncoming bus.

"It's really nothing," Yeri answered, brushing it off easily, "in fact, it's saving me money from here on out. Now that there's four separate phones hooked up to my family's plan, our rate is going to change, and we'll be getting a discount for it. So, I think it's a win-win situation overall."

"Still, buying something so expensive for someone like me. . ." Joy trailed off, as she wasn't quite sure where she was going with that sentence in the first place.

"For someone who's hard working and has made my life a lot better since coming into it? Trust me Joy, it's no sweat off of my back to give you the things you deserve in life. Plus, I got us matching cases," Yeri beamed as she took her own phone from her pocket, brandishing the new case that she'd purchased the day before.

The base color of the object was done in a marbled design of white and various shades of pink. In the center, there was a customized black circle that had her name printed on it in white, cursive calligraphy that complimented her dainty nature and accentuated her girly sense of style. Joy's was the same as hers, except Joy's own name was written in the circle instead, and somehow, the case complimented the older female just as well as it did the younger.

The simple design matched with Joy's minimalist sense of style, and the marble paired nicely with her elegant and sophisticated disposition.

"So," Yeri spoke up once more, smiling bashfully, "what do you think?"

Joy broke into a wide grin. For once, for the very first time in her entire life, she felt like she had a friend. A true friend. A _best friend_.

"I love it," the taller girl gushed, unable to keep the smile off of her face.

"I've never really gotten a gift before. I grew up in this place, and we've never had much money, so presents and spending money on things that we didn't really need. . . We've just never done it. So, this is my first time ever receiving a gift from anyone in my life."

That truly made Yeri sad. She grew up receiving lots of gifts throughout the year, and she'd never known what it would be like to only have enough money to exist, survive, and do nothing besides that. But, seeing the look on Joy's face gave Yeri all the satisfaction she could ever need, and she was so happy to have been able to give her friend something that she rightfully deserved.

"I already put my phone number in it, by the way. . . Just in case you'd ever want to text or call me," Yeri said.

"Whenever I can, I will," Joy promised.

"I have school and work, and that takes up a lot of my time, but I'll try to send you messages or give you a call whenever I can. It'll be nice to be able to talk with you more than once a week."

"Definitely," the brunette agreed.

"And I'll be sure to answer you as soon as I can, always."

✦

That coming Monday, Joy walked into school with a better outlook on the day that was to come. She still disliked her school, as well as the students who attended with her, and the incompetent teachers that stood idly by while so many people were pushed around like rag dolls, -but the high she'd gotten from spending time with Yeri, as well as receiving her first ever gift from her, was more than enough to keep her spirits high well past the direct moment in which it happened.

The two of them hadn't had much time to talk with one another over the phone just yet, neither had they had much time for texting messaging back and forth, but the brief fifteen second phone call that they'd shared on Sunday night at fifty eight minutes past eleven was something that Joy would never forget. The way Yeri whispered to her through the phone, saying goodnight to her, tacking her name onto the end of it, and wishing for her to have nice dreams.

It was something so quick, something so minuscule that Joy doubted Yeri would even remember it at all, but the raven haired female replayed those words over and over and over again within her mind, letting her chest flood with warmth each time she recalled the event.

"Goodnight, Joy. I hope you have nice dreams tonight. . ."

"Watch where you're going!"

Joy was snapped away from her thoughts by the feeling of her shoulder clipping against someone else's, and then an angered voice snapping at her sharply. She cursed herself for not paying attention in the hallway, and she glanced over to see a pair of glaring eyes staring bullets into her menacingly.

_So much for being invisible today_. . .

"Sorry," Joy apologized to the female, who's name she'd never bothered to learn in all the years they'd gone to school together.

Thankfully, that seemed as if it would be the end of things from there. The raven haired female moved on to her locker, letting out a small sigh as she grabbed her world history textbook and made her way to her first period classroom. Unfortunately for her, the girl she'd accidentally bumped into in the hallway was also an attendee of that exact same class, much to Joy's ignorance. She'd never bothered to pay attention to her peers, because the majority of them were either loud and obnoxious, closed off and yearning to be left alone, or hidden amongst a group of friends that seemed to blend together to the point of everyone looking the same somehow.

Joy herself fit into the second category. She had absolutely no desire to befriend any of her classmates, and really, she hadn't planned on finding a friend in Yeri either. That was simply something that happened to occur somewhere along the long, and really, Joy couldn't say that she was disappointed in that development. It was quite the opposite, actually.

As per usual, the dark haired girl planned on sitting in the back of the classroom where she could be hidden away from the eyes of her teacher. But, as she made her way through one of the aisles between the rows of desks, the obnoxious female that Joy had bumped into by accident thrust her leg into the walkway, causing her unsuspecting classmate to stumble over her limb and be send crashing to the hard floor. The wind was knocked from her lungs, and Joy gasped lightly. It took a moment for the shock to wear off, but when it did, the pain in the both of her arms and her chest took it's place in her body.

The chorus of laughter that followed started with a snicker from across the room, which soon grew into a cacophony of full blown cackles at her dismay. Tears welled in Joy's eyes as she pulled herself to her feet, grabbing the things she'd dropped in the fall, but she kept her head held high in spite of the circumstances. She refused to be weak, because she knew just how strong she was, and she wouldn't let any entitled brat take that away from her. The laughter continued until the teacher entered the room and demanded that the noise be silenced. Joy couldn't have possibly been anymore thankful to see Mr. Kim than she was one that day. . .

From that point, Joy suffered through her first three classes, ignoring the mocking words of rude people that thought it was appropriate to continue to make fun of her over what had happened that morning. It wasn't even her own mistake or clumsiness that led to the incident, and yet she was being heckled for it even hours after it had taken place, and by people who weren't even in the classroom when it occurred. As unfair as it was, Joy pushed through it. There were times when she wanted to cry, but those tears never made their way past her bottom row of eyelashes. She wouldn't let them.

_Words can only hurt me if I allow them to_. . .

Lunchtime rolled around, much to Joy's relief, and she retrieved her food from her locker and then sneaked away to the basement where she always chose to eat. Down there, there was a supply closet that was hardly use by the janitors of the school because of its inconvenient location, which made it Joy's most favorite location the entire building. The spiders in there weren't always the most pleasant creatures to sit with, but after a while, she'd gotten used to having them around.

Thankfully they weren't very big at all, and Joy had never been all that afraid of the arachnids, so she could easily learn to coincide with them. In a way, she almost saw herself in them. . . A bit misunderstood, simply trying to get by in life with means that certainly weren't the easiest, and ridiculed simply for existing in a way that was innate and natural. Minus the part about drinking blood for nutrients, though, as Joy wasn't keen on doing that anytime soon.

With yet another sigh, the raven haired female sat down between a half empty box of bleach products and a medium sized trashcan. It certainly wasn't the most glamorous of eateries, but Joy had long since learned to work with what she was given, and this situation was no exception to that. She unwrapped her sandwich as she turned her phone on, smiling at the memory that was still very fresh in her mind of her receiving the device from Yeri.

She simply couldn't believe that the brunette had gone out of her way, using money that she could have spent on many other things, to buy a phone for someone that she was still relatively new friends with. Sure, they had grown close quite quickly, but even still, Joy could hardly believe that Yeri had done something so sweet for her.

She just wasn't accustomed to such acts of kindness. . .

The smile on Joy's face was partially impossible to take away. Her heart felt full, and somehow, she knew that she finally had someone that she would be able to turn to in her times of need. Not in a financial way either, but in an emotional way. Joy knew that Yeri would be there for her when and if she ever needed to break down her stoic facade and express her pent up emotions. Joy knew that Yeri would be there for her to give her a shoulder to cry on when she needed it the most. And the raven aired female vowed that she would do the same for the younger girl without question.

Taking another small bite of her lunch, Joy unlocked her phone and clicked on the only contact that was saved on it, which of course, was Yeri's. She didn't know if the brunette was in class or not, so she didn't call her, and instead she decided to text her, just to see if they could talk during that time. After all, Joy had promised on the day she'd gotten the phone to contact Yeri whenever she had the time to do so, and frankly, being hauled up in a storage closet hanging with cleaning products and arachnids was the perfect opportunity for her message the younger girl and see what she was up to.

The text that she typed out was very simple, just a hello and asking if Yeri was free to talk during that point in time. After sending it, Joy turned her phone off and sat it down beside of her thigh, as she didn't figure she would get an answer back for at least a few minutes. But, that hypothesis was quickly proven to be incorrect when Joy's phone began to ring not even thirty seconds later.

"Hello?" The raven haired girl answered, putting the device to her ear.

"Hey!" Yeri's cheerful voice rang out, "how are you doing?"

"Oh, well, I'm pretty bored right now," the elder female admitted, glancing around at the boxes that surrounded her in the dimly lit supply closet, "I'm in a supply closet at school right now, so there's not much happening."

"A supply closet?" The brunette giggled, "how come?"

"Um. . . Y'know, just because I'm not the biggest fan of the students here, and they're not very fond of me either, so it's better for me to get as far away from them as I can as often as I can. It's like a breather for me, honestly."

"I guess that makes sense," Yeri acknowledged, "I just wish that you had somewhere better to go than a supply closet. That can't be a very comfortable place to sit."

"Eh," Joy shrugged, "it could always be worse. I've been coming down here since I was a freshman, so this isn't anything new, really. I've gotten used to it. But,enough about me, how's your day been so far?"

"Pretty good, actually," the brunette stated, leaning her cheek against the palm of her open hand, "we had a pop quiz during my geometry class, but I think that I passed it, so I'm not all that worried about it."

"I'm sure you did great on it," Joy replied kindly.

"I hope so," Yeri answered.

"But, I'm thinking of stopping by the diner tonight, if you wouldn't mind me being there."

"No, of course I wouldn't mind," the raven haired girl assured,"but. . . I think I have a better idea."

"And that idea is. . . ?"

"Swing by the diner just before we close. I can make us something to eat beforehand, and we can eat at the diner after hours. Then we can go wherever we want," Joy stated.

". . . that really does sound like a lot of fun," Yeri replied, "but, do you think your mom would be okay with you staying out late on a school night? My parents are at one of my father's conferences in Seoul right now, so I'll be home alone until Sunday morning, but I don't want you to get in any trouble or anything. . ."

"Don't worry about it," Joy brushed Yeri's worries off, "my mom has been working the night shift lately. She's working when I get in at night, and she's sleeping when I leave for school in the mornings."

Frankly, that was something that Joy and Yeri had in common. While Joy's mother and Yeri's parents loved their children unconditionally, they were also working the vast majority of the times. For very different reasons of course, as Joy's mother was working so that her and her daughter could make ends meet, while Yeri's parents worked because they each greatly enjoyed their professions and were currently at the peaks of their careers. Still, it left their children feeling empty a lot more often than either of them would dare to admit.

". . . well, if that's the case, then I'd love to," the younger female stated.

"My lunch period is about to be over, so I have to go, but I'll see you tonight, Joy."

The raven haired loved it when the brunette said her name. She couldn't help but to wonder if that was a bit narcissistic on her end, but even still, she couldn't deny that her own name falling for Yeri's lips had to be one of the most angelic, melodic things on the face of planet Earth.

"I'll see you then, Yeri," Joy replied, wondering in the back of her mind if the uttering of her name had as much impact on Yeri as it did on herself.

She doubted it, though. . .

✦

The rest of each of their days went by as normal, albeit a bit sluggishly on both ends. Joy finished up her classes, and she did her best to ignore the ignorant people that were still mocking her relentlessly for the tumble she'd taken in her first period classroom that morning. Yeri did the same, going about her day as normal, her thoughts brimming with excitement as she wondered what she and Joy would be doing together.

Yeri had grown attached, and whether she meant to do so or not, there was no coming back from it. Frankly, it would have been impossible for her to do so. She was in so deepat such an early state of their friendship that she highly doubted she'd be able to back away, cut their ties, and move along without leaving shards of her heart behind in the elder female's hands. Not that she wanted to do so anyway.

During her last class of the day, it had also gotten to the point where the brunette was fading in and out of being present because of how deep she was into her thoughts, which led to Seulgi balling up a wad of notebook paper and tossing it at the side of her friend's head before the teacher could call her out for daydreaming instead of paying attention to the lesson.

"Sorry for the late call," Yeri's mother apologized, "time just got away from your father and I tonight. How's everything going at home?"

"Everything is fine," the brunette assured as she made her way down the sidewalk of the lower city district.

She'd done it enough times by that point to have remembered where each of the bumps and cracks were, so she could walk the pavement without tripping over them now.

"How come you're up so late, sweetie? I figured you'd be asleep by this time, so I was just going to leave you a voicemail for you to give me a call when you woke up," her mother stated, to which Yeri quickly thought up a lie.

After all, what her mom didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

"I was studying for a test that I have tomorrow," the brunette explained, "but, no worries, I'll go to bed right after I hang up."

Yeri had never been one to deceive her parents, she'd never gone out to parties; -she'd never done a single thing that would be considered "troubled teen behavior". Of course, she'd had her fair share of arguments with both her mother and her father over pointless things that didn't even need to be yelled about in the first place, but things had always managed to smooth themselves out with time,and Yeri was always known for being a very good child in the eyes of her parents. She wasn't rebellious, she made good grades, she strayed away from toxic friendships, and she was, overall, the type of child that any parent would kill to have.

That's why her mother didn't hesitate to allow her to stay home alone for a week, and she didn't question her daughter when she told her that she would be heading to sleep as soon as their conversation came to and end.

"Well then, I'll let you get off the phone so you can get some rest. I'll call you again tomorrow evening to check in."

"Alright," Yeri replied, "I'll talk to you then. Love you."

"Love you too, honey."

The line went dead, and the brunette couldn't help but to feel a bit guilty about the fact that she'd just blatantly lied to her mother. It wasn't the first time, as she'd fudged the truth many times in the past when it came to things like completing her homework, cleaning her room, and enjoying her mother's new recipes, but, this situation was quite different. Yeri was sure that nothing bad would happen to her, as she'd been to the lower side a handful of times by that point, and nothing bad had ever taken place.

However, she couldn't shake the lingering fear in her chest that lead her to believe that she'd just jinxed herself with those thoughts.

As silly as it was, Yeri felt a rush of relief wash over her when the diner entered her line of sight. The "closed" sign was flipped outwardly, but the brunette knew that she didn't have to follow that regulation, which gave her an odd sense of pride as she entered the establishment.

"Joy?" She called out, playing with her fingers absentmindedly as she moved to be perched on the tips of her feet, attempting to peer back into the kitchen.

"Right here," the raven haired female popped her head up from behind the register's counter that she'd been crouched behind.

"Sorry, I was putting the register key away."

"No worries," Yeri brushed it off simply, "I'm just glad to see you. I thought I'd have to wait until Friday for that."

"Not this week," Joy replied, that alluring smile of hers gracing her lips prominently.

"But, I'm glad to see you too."

"What happened to your elbow?" The younger female inquired, noting the discoloration of her skin in that area.

The elder girl's sleeves had been rolled up in order to keep her cool during her shift at the diner, and she's forgotten about the bruise that's she'd been left with after being tripped in her first period. She was planning on hiding it away under the sleeves of her shirt, but time had gotten away from her that night, as it was an unusually busy workday, and she'd let it slip her mind that it was present on her skin.

"Ah, it's nothing," Joy assured, "I fell earlier today is all. It's nothing to worry about."

It was a bit late for that, though. Yeri had begun to worry as soon as she'd laid her eyes upon the taller female's contusion.

"Anyway," Joy changed the topic of conversation as she yanked her shirt sleeves down, "I made us some food to eat before we go anywhere. I'll go grab the plates real quick, so you can pick a table to sit at."

Yeri did so, and she purposefully chose the same table that she and Joy had sat at together on the night they first met. The brunette smiled fondly at memory, and she could practically taste the watery hot chocolate on her tongue.

"I hope you don't mind grilled cheese sandwiches," Joy placed Yeri's food in front of her before sitting her own plate down on the table and going to grab their drinks.

"Not at all," the brunette assured, taking a bite of the sandwich.

It was surprisingly excellent for a diner such as that one.

"Oh, and, I'll pay our bill for the meals, so just tell me how much it is before we leave."

"You're sure?" Joy raised an eyebrow.

"I just got paid, so I can take care of my own food, if nothing else."

"Of course I'm sure," Yeri smiled, "that's what friends are for!"

The elder female forced herself to smile.

_ **Friends** _ _. . ._


	2. ❝TWO.❞

Autumn faded into winter, and by the time the first few snowflakes fell from the clouds above, Yeri was left questioning herself in the most prolific ways. It was in the colder months out of the year that she felt pangs of warmth burst within her chest, almost as if liquid sunshine was being injected straight into her bloodstream. Yeri was in a state of elation, and she was happier within those days than she had been in a very, very long time. The only thing was that she couldn't understand why that was. . .

It wasn't just in her own mind either, which was what she originally suspected the feeling to be. However, she'd had multiple different people note her change in demeanor, siting that she seemed much more joyful lately than she did just a few weeks prior.

"I'm not sure what it is," Yeri said, clicking her pen once before she let it drop onto the wooden desk in her room, "I just feel happier. I can't say why, because I really don't know, but I'd like things to stay this way; -at least for a little while longer."

"It's a little weird that this new attitude came out of nowhere," Wendy stated, "but, not all changes are bad. If you're okay with the way you're feeling, I wouldn't worry too much about anything."

"Yeah," Irene agreed, "there's nothing wrong with wanting to be a happier version of yourself."

"It's not just happiness, though," Seulgi chimed in, tossing her hair behind her shoulder, "it's a lot more, from what I've seen. You're more confident, and you just have this new, healthy glow to you. It's like you're finally at a place where you feel comfortable just being yourself."

The other girls all nodded in agreement, as they too had seen that spark of difference in the younger female. All three of Yeri's friends had taken notice of her new, shining outlook on the world. The brunette was incredibly pretty, and her personality matched that of a saint, but for some reason, she never carried herself in a way that portrayed the confidence she should have had in being who she truly was. Yeri had always been the type to second guess herself a lot of the time about anything and everything. From hairstyles, to earring choices, to answers on school assignments; -she was never known for being sure of herself, which was a sad fact given that she deserved to be just that.

"I don't know," Yeri shrugged her shoulders, "I just feel. . . Good. _Great_, even. I have no idea why, so all I really know is that I like it."

Before the conversation had a chance to continue on, the brunette's phone began to ring. She looked over, quickly reaching out to grab the device when she saw that Joy's name was written across the top half of her screen.

"I'm going to take this," Yeri noted, making her way out of the bedroom as her friends all nodded, simply choosing to return to the chemistry assignment they were working on together.

As soon as the wooden door closed behind her, the brunette clicked the green button on the phone screen and put it to her ear.

"Hey Joy," she couldn't stop herself from smiling as the elder female's name fell from her glossy lips, "what's up?"

"Well, Seoyeon is closing the diner this weekend to deal with some family matters out of town, so I won't be working at all. And, since that's the case, I was thinking I could come and spend the weekend with you in the upper side, if that's okay with you and your parents?" The raven haired female stated, making excitement course through Yeri's veins like a drug.

"Of course!" The brunette stated immediately, not hesitating in her response in the slightest.

"It'll be great! We can go bowling, or maybe play laser tag, whichever one you'd rather do! We can go to the mall, and we can try out the new soft pretzel shop that opened inside of it! I haven't been to the mall in a few weeks, so I haven't had them either, so it'll be a first time for the both of us! We can also watch movies in my room, and it'll be really cool, because my mom just bought new flat screen televisions for our bedrooms!"

If Joy wasn't taken with the younger girl before, (which she absolutely was), there was no way she could have resisted Yeri's charm at that point in time. Her excitement was overwhelming, and just from the happiness in her tone of voice, the elder female could just picture the brilliant smile on her face as she was speaking.

"That sounds great, Yeri," Joy answered.

"I wish I could stay and talk longer, but my break is almost over. I'll see you on Friday at the soup kitchen, right?"

"Of course!" The brunette answered, "don't you always?"

"I just didn't know if you'd be coming since it's been pretty cold these past few days," the raven haired girl replied.

"I'll bundle up," Yeri brushed the concern off rather quickly, "a little bit of snow isn't going to stop me."

"Then, I guess I'll see you then," Joy smiled, "talk to you later, Yeri."

"Alright. Don't work too hard!' The younger female said sweetly.

"No worries," the older girl answered.

With quick goodbyes exchanged, they each got back to their previous tasks, with Joy returning to her job and Yeri returning to her bedroom to work on the chemistry project alongside them. Irene was the first to glance up and look over at Yeri, and she smiled in a way that seemed almost. . . _Devious_. It was a knowing look, and one that had the younger female on the latter end of it glancing behind her just to be sure nothing was there.

"So," Irene leaned forward a bit as she placed her textbook aside, "who called?"

"Joy," the brunette replied honestly, not seeing any reason as to why she should lie about it.

"She's coming to stay the weekend with me since the diner will be closed."

"Does that mean we'll finally get to meet her?" Seulgi inquired, finally deciding that having her hair down wasn't worth the trouble as she went about haphazardly tying her long, chestnut strands into a high ponytail.

"I mean. . . She's a little shy around new people, but I think she'd like to meet you guys. Maybe we could meet at the mall on Saturday, all five of us! You could get to know her, Joy could get to know you three, and we can all do some shopping," Yeri stated happily.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Wendy chimed in, "I need to get a pair of winter boots."

The conversation took off from there, with the youngest female losing herself in a state of daydreaming whilst the other three girls chatted amongst themselves, making verbal listings of what they wanted to purchase at the mall in a few days time.

✦

Joy sighed softly as she finished wiping down the last table of the night. The raven haired female was quite sleepy, but even so, she wanted to get in at least half an hour of studying before she went to bed that night. She had a very important math test the next day, and she knew that she more than likely wouldn't be able to pass it if she didn't.

"I hope you don't mind me prying a little bit," Seoyeon prefaced, closing up the cash register for the night, "but, have things gotten better at home for you and your mother recently?"

The inquiry took Joy by surprise, especially since she wasn't the type to talk about her family or personal matters very much. Of course, having worked for Seoyeon since she was a freshman in high school, she'd shared a few tidbits here and there with her boss, and she'd received advice on a few occasions. However, there wasn't much depth to their usual conversations, as it was clear that the both of them were just trying to do their jobs and go home when their shifts were over.

"Um. . . Well, she's been working more recently, and they upped her pay a bit for her working the night shift, so that has its pros and cons," Joy replied.

"I was just curious," Seoyeon noted, "because, I saw that you'd gotten a cellphone, and you seem to be a little less stressed out these days."

"Ah, the phone," the eighteen year old's fingers danced over her back pocket, just to make sure the device was still there, "a friend bought it for me."

"_Just _a friend?" The older female gave her employee a sly look, obviously suggesting something that caused Joy's cheeks to turn light pink in color.

"Yeah," the raven hired girl brushed a few strands of loose hair behind her flushed ear, "just a friend."

"Does this friend have a name?" Seoyeon questioned.

"Yeri," Joy replied, "you've met her once or twice. She's the person that came in a little while back when we were closing, and you gave me the keys to lock up after I finished serving her."

After a few moments of looking confused, Seoyeon's eyes lit up with realization.

"The girl with the brown hair, cut a bit on the shorter side?" She asked, needing confirmation as to whether or not the individual she was picturing in her mind was really who Joy was referencing.

"Yep," the raven haired girl nodded, smiling gently, "that's her."

"She must be wealthy then, if she can afford a gift like that," Seoyeon noted.

"Yes," Joy nodded once more, "she's from a very wealthy family. Her father is a psychiatrist and her mother is a well-known jewelry designer, so they're very well off."

"I would imagine so, with jobs like those," the elder female stated pointedly.

"But, I won't keep you here any longer. I'll lock up tonight, so you can head on home."

"Alright then," Joy nodded, "thank you."

"Stay warm," Seoyeon smiled sweetly, and the younger girl knew that it was a genuine gesture due to the way that it reflected off of her alluring sepia eyes.

"You too."

With a small wave goodbye, Joy stepped out of the diner and onto the cement sidewalk outside. Night had fallen and it came with an unforgiving bitterness that rutted the raven haired female to the very center of her bones. She rushed home, as she highly disliked the way in which the frigid air came to attack her warm beige skin with fangs made of ice and claws coated in permafrost. Sadly, the inside of her house wasn't much better, as the heating system inside of it was far less than lackluster, but there was no way for her or her mother to fix it with the financial situation they were always stuck inside of.

Sighing lightly, the eighteen year old sat down on her bed, pulling her backpack with her so that she could hurry and get her studying over with for the night. She was incredibly tired, and frankly, all she wanted to do was pull the covers over her head, bask in the warmth that the action would provide her with, and sleep for as long as her body and mind would allow. But, she knew very well that she needed to get her mediocre grades up, and she had responsibilities to take care of that simply wouldn't allow her warm fantasies to become a reality anytime soon.

Flipping her textbook to the page that corresponded with the notes she'd scrawled down during class earlier that day, Joy let another small sigh slip through her dry lips, only to be interrupted by the ringing of her cellphone. As soon as the screen of the device lit up and she could see that Yeri's name was written across the top of it, Joy smiled to herself, feeling warmth blossom within her despite the weather outside.

"Hey," the raven haired female answered the call, an uncontrollable smile playing on her lips, only proving to match the one adoring Yeri's dainty features on the opposite end of the city.

"Hey," the younger female parroted, "are you still at work?"

"Nope," Joy shook her head despite the fact that the brunette wasn't there to see that, "I just got home."

"Do you need something?"

"No, no. . . Nothing like that," Yeri replied, nervously playing with the ends of her short hair as she looked in the mirror, staring at her very own reflection, "I just. . . I wanted to hear your voice."

Those words spilled from her lips before she had the chance to run them through the filter in her brain. What she said wasn't untrue by any means, and frankly, the only reason she'd called was to hear Joy's angelic voice speaking just to her and to her alone. However, that wasn't really something that she wanted to outwardly express to the raven haired female in any capacity. Her cheeks reddened as soon as the words were spoken into the open air, and while a part of her truly hoped that Joy hadn't heard her, there was undeniably a part of her that prayed for the exact opposite.

As much as it was an embarrassing situation to be caught up in, it didn't make Yeri's words any less truthful, and a part of her wanted Joy to know that she'd meant what it was that she'd said to her.

". . . well, you're hearing it now," the elder female stated after a few moments of silence ticked by.

". . . yeah," Yeri breathed out as a slight shiver crept down her spine, "anyway, I'm sorry for bothering you. I'm sure you're going to bed at this hour since you had to work today. You must be tired."

"Only a little," Joy replied, her fingers tapping on her textbook in a set order.

"I'm excited to see you on Friday."

"I'm excited too," the younger girl grinned, "what time do you want to meet up?"

"I can walk to the upper side district as soon as my school day is finished. During winter, Haneul doesn't let high school students volunteer at the kitchen because he wants us to stay inside and not get sick, and this year the cut off point is earlier than I expected, so neither of will be able to volunteer there until springtime."

"I don't want you to get sick either," Yeri noted, pulling her legs up onto the chair she was sitting on, "so, please don't walk to the upper side. You'll be freezing in temperatures like this, and you might even catch a cold. I'll just have my driver come and get you as soon as school lets out, seeing as we can't go to the soup kitchen like we thought."

"You have a driver?" Joy raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah," the brunette replied, "but I only ever call him in the winter. I'm pretty sensitive to temperatures, no matter if they're hot or cold, but I do a lot better when it's warm, so I can walk places in the summer without worrying too much about it having a bad effect on me. Cold weather isn't like that, though. It can really mess with my body and make me feel dizzy, so I don't like to walk after the first big snowfall of the year."

"That makes sense," the raven haired female replied.

"I think it's good that you have a driver that you can call when you need him. It would really scare me if you had to go out and walk in cold weather when it can have such a bad impact on your body and on your health."

"And that's why I don't want to let you walk to the upper district," Yeri said, "it'll be cold, and I don't want you to get sick on the way here. So, as soon as I get out of my last class, I'll have my driver waiting on me outside the school, and I'll have him come and get you."

". . . okay," Joy smiled lightly, "that'll work. I'll wait at my school's front gate so that you won't have to drive all the way to my house."

"If you need to go back to your house before you come, there's not an issue with driving there," the shorter girl assured.

"Don't worry about it," the elder female said, "going from school to sitting in a warm car sounds a lot better than walking home in the cold. It's easier to leave from the gates for both of us."

"Alright then," Yeri replied, "I'll see you then!"

The happiness that trickled from her tone of voice was incredibly distinct, and there wasn't a way in the entire world for the younger female to hide it. She was practically bursting at the seams, and each word that fell from her lips was dusted in contentment and delight.

"Okay, see you then, Yeri," Joy replied, and the brunette's heart fluttered when the older girl said her name.

"Goodnight, Joy," the younger female said softly, wondering whether or not the latter's heart was doing the same, although she couldn't help but to doubt that that was the case.

"Goodnight."

Setting her phone aside, Yeri perched her elbow onto the edge of her vanity table and rested her head on her hand, gazing up at her own reflection in the mirror. She was searching for what everyone else was seeing, and it wasn't hard for her to notice the new light that was flickering behind her pupils; -illuminating her irises warmly. There was a difference between the person she was before she met Joy and the person she was in that very moment, and that was obvious. It was clear to her that none of the feelings and none of the differences were simply figments of her own active imagination.

Instead, she stared fondly at the person she was growing into. . . Yeri felt like a flower, blossoming in the wrong season but thriving anyway, because sunlight was exuding from within her. The brunette had never known what it was like to feel that way, but she certainly enjoyed it.

_**She enjoyed the confidence that Joy gave her to be herself**_. . .

✦

Yeri's gaze danced between the whiteboard at the front of the classroom, on which the teacher was scribbling down a set of pages to read over and be prepared to test on come Monday afternoon, and the ticking clock hanging on the left hand side of the room. The brunette had never been the type of student to stare idly at such a thing and not actively do her assignments with her full attention on them, but that afternoon wasn't ordinary in the slightest.

"Come on," she whispered under her breath, her foot tapping impatiently underneath of her school desk, "ring already."

The second hand ticked once, twice, thrice, and Yeri was becoming even more anxious as the plastic stick clacked along behind the plastic imprisonment of the clock face's cheap cover. Anticipation weighed heavily in her veins, giving her the type of feeling that was teetering between fear and excitement. Outside the window, snowflakes fell from the sky lightly, their fragile forms not falling fast or hard enough to pile up on the ground just yet. There was a light dusting if anything at all, and Yeri was honestly very thankful for that, because it meant that the drive to Joy's school to pick the elder female up would be an easy one, and it meant that the raven haired girl more than likely wasn't waiting in a downpour of frozen rain.

Pulling the brunette from her thoughts less than a minute later was the final bell, and the teacher sighed lightly, feeling just as thankful as the students she was instructing that it was finally Friday.

"Class dismissed," she stated tiredly, making her way over to her desk as students began to gather their things up to exit the classroom.

Fortunately, all Yeri had to do was stuff her notebook into her bag and make sure it was zipped up properly before she rose to her feet, swung the strap over her right shoulder, and made her way out of the room as quickly as she could manage without getting scolded for running. She made her way down the hall, feeling thankful that her last class of the day was on the first floor of her school building.

"You seem like you're in a hurry," Wendy commented, falling into step beside of her friend as the both of them made their way to the exit.

"My driver is waiting on me," Yeri replied, "I'm going to pick up Joy since she's staying with me all weekend."

"Oh yeah," the older girl was reminded of that, "I hope you have fun."

"I will," the brunette answered, flashing her charming smile in Wendy's direction before walking directly out the door, giving up the warm school halls in exchange for a frosty outdoor atmosphere.

Almost immediately, she spotted her car with its engine running and her driver's head facing forward, his shoulders pressed back against the driver's seat, his back straight, and his hands gripping onto the steering wheel. He was clearly ready to do his job in a proper and timely manner, and Yeri smiled gently as she opened the back door of the car and got inside, brushing snowflakes out of her brown strands of hair that only melted at the warm touch of her fingertips.

"Hi, Jaejin," Yeri greeted politely, flashing the man her kindest smile.

"Hi, Yeri," he responded, returning the gesture with the small upturning of the corners of his lips, "to the lower side's high school, right?"

"Mhm," the female nodded her head, "that's right. My friend Joy goes to school there, and she's coming to spend the weekend at my place."

The car was promptly directed onto the road, and the brunette in the backseat watched out the window giddily, that happy smile refusing to release its grip on her chapstick coated lips.

"If you don't mind me asking," Jaejin prefaced, "how did you meet Joy? With you two living in such different places, going to different schools, and probably leading such different lives, it just leaves me wondering how you met her in the first place."

Yeri understood why that question, in particular, was being asked. It was very true that her and Joy were from two very different walks of life, so she completely comprehended why those around her would be curious, and maybe even suspicious, of her friendship with the elder girl.

"Back in the fall, Seulgi, Wendy, Irene and I volunteered at a soup kitchen on the lower side, and I ended up staying later than I thought I would to help clean up and things like that. On my way back, I stopped in at a diner that was getting ready to close. Joy works there as a waitress, and I bought hot chocolate for both of us. From there, I started volunteering at the soup kitchen every Friday afternoon with her, and things just sort of went from there. We clicked, and now we're pretty close," Yeri explained.

It was a bit wild to her when she thought about it that way. If not for her staying late that one night, she more than likely never would have met Joy, and frankly, the brunette couldn't seem to imagine her life without the elder female in it at that point.

Jaejin nodded in understanding, but he didn't speak up in response, instead settling for that nonverbal assurance that he'd indeed been listening. Not long after, the car came to a stop in front of the lower district's high school. . . The building was, to put it bluntly, extremely ugly, and it looked as if nobody really bothered to keep it up over the recent years. Yeri assumed that the appearance could be boiled down to the lack of funding that the educational system must be receiving, and she just hoped that the teachings within themselves weren't as lackluster as the building itself.

Joy's slender figure and angelic face soon came into view, and the first thing that Yeri noted was the fact that her jacket was extremely thin; -far too thin to actually be keeping the taller female warm in temperatures like this. Her raven colored hair fell in beachy waves past her shoulders, collecting more than a few snowflakes as she made her way to the vehicle. Yeri reached over, opening the door for her friend from the inside, to which the taller girl smiled gratefully and quietly said her thanks for the gesture.

"You weren't waiting for too long, were you?" The younger girl asked, her eyes picking up on the less than subtle tint of rosy pink that was present on Joy's cheeks.

"No, just a few minutes," the older female assured, brushing Yeri's worries off very easily, "thank you for the ride."

Once more, Jaejin nodded his head curtly, choosing not to say "you're welcome" aloud to the raven haired girl before driving the car back the way they'd come through in order to bring the two teenagers to Yeri's home. The ride was smooth and quick, and Joy was beyond thankful for the fact that she didn't have to walk her way to the younger girl's house, as the snow began to come down a lot heavier and a lot quicker as soon as they pulled into the garage. It even began to stick to the roads, which most certainly wasn't a good thing for those who'd yet to meet their clock out time for their jobs. . .

"Wow," Joy breathed out when they stepped inside of the house, "this place is stunning."

The outside of Yeri's home was stunning as well, pearl white with all the most modern-looking features that a singular house could have. It looked like a cut out from "Architects Today" magazine. It was nothing short of absolutely beautiful. Everything looked perfectly geometric, as is whatever team of builders that had constructed it from the ground up spend years on just the measurements and the cutting of materials alone. It was shocking, really. Where Joy was from, she never saw buildings like that. . . Her world consisted of chipped bricks, cracked sidewalks, and overgrown vines creeping up houses that would eventually be swallowed by vegetation on the off chance that the harsh winter didn't take the plants out first.

However, the exterior of the house didn't hold a single candle to the interior. Not even in the slightest. From the outside, the raven haired female knew that it was going to be quite large, almost intimidatingly so, but she wasn't at all prepared for what she'd come to find when she made her way into the house. The paintwork on the trim was a mahogany brown, matching exquisitely with the cream beige color of the walls. The floors were made of hardwood, and despite the rustic nature of the materials, the hickory colored wood was glossy and almost looked wet in an oddly classy way.

The windows were much larger than average, and Joy could tell that they would be a great light source in the summer months where in which sunlight could pour through them freely as it spilled from the hands of the brightest star in the sky. The staircase matched the rest of the home's color scheme to a T, with the banister brandishing the same hickory color as the flooring, the tread mimicking the cream beige color of the walls, and the risers of the stairs flaunting the pear white that covered the exterior of the building.

"Thanks," Yeri smiled, "I'm sure my mom would be happy to hear that."

"Did your mom design the house?" Joy inquired, following the younger girl to the stairs.

She thought that that might have been the case because of the fact that Yeri's mother designed jewelry, and while houses were certainly a far cry from such rings and necklaces, the raven haired female couldn't help but to think that the female may have had a large say in what the house would look like. At least in the colors, if nothing else.

"Not completely," the brunette noted, "but she had a lot of ideas, and a lot of them were put into the final design."

The two girls made their way up the stairs and across a small hallway that overlooked the living room, finally coming to a stop in front of a hickory colored door that Joy rightfully assumed was Yeri's bedroom.

"You can put your bag anywhere you want," the shorter female smiled hospitably, opening the door up for the raven haired girl to step inside and bask in the neatness of the space.

The taller female sat her backpack down in the corner of the room, doing her best to keep it as far out of the way as she possibly could. She was the guest, the one intruding, after all, and she'd been raised to always show respect and decency towards those doing kind things for her.

And heaven knows that Yeri had done lots of the sort. . .

The younger female's room was much, much larger than Joy's own room back home, but frankly, she hadn't been expecting anything less than such. The older girl couldn't help but to feel embarrassed at even the thought of Yeri seeing where she resided, but then again, there was a part of Joy that told her adamantly that it simply wouldn't matter to Yeri in any way whatsoever. There was a vanity table in the far corner of the room with a plethora of makeup products and lotions neatly aligned on top of it. It was a alabaster white that had a slightly rosy tint to it, and the mirror attached to it was trimmed in a fine ring of gold. It had an antique feel to it, one that reminded Joy of something she'd stumbled across in a thrift store a few years back and had truly considered purchasing.

There was also a small, vintage looking wooden chair sitting in front of the table, presumable where Yeri would sit when she would go about applying her makeup and such. A few feet away from the vanity table was a wooden desk that was lined with a variety of pens, papers, pencils, folders, and an assortment of other stationary items, which led Joy to believe that that was where Yeri did her homework and completed her school assignments.

Her bed was adorned by a pale pink comforter set, but instead of coming off as childish or kid-like, it had an air of high sophistication about it. Joy wasn't sure whether it was the material it was made of or the color in which it flaunted, but either way, she couldn't help but to find it extremely beautiful, and especially fitting for Yeri's room in every sense of the word.

"I'm going to get changed out of my uniform," the brunette stated, placing her bag onto her bed as she made her way over to her closet door.

"Do you want to borrow some of my clothes, or did you bring some of your own?"

"I brought my own," Joy responded, bending down to open her backpack, retrieving a medium sized, slightly tattered lady tote bag from inside that she'd managed to shove clothing inside of after about an hour of folding and refolding the items to fit them all in neatly.

Yeri glanced over at the much less than new item, her eyes raking over the multiple cracks in the fake, black leather. Of course, she wasn't judging Joy for having such a thing, but rather, she couldn't help but to wish for her friend to have something better; -something that Yeri felt she deserved for all the work she did.

"I'll be out in just a minute," Yeri forced her eyes away, not wishing to stare for too long and have her good intentions be mistaken for rude judgements.

The shorter female made her way into the bathroom that was attached to her room, opening the door that Joy had yet to take notice of until that very moment, stepping inside and closing it shut behind her. Slipping out of her less than comfortable school uniform, Yeri replaced her previous attire with a black long sleeved shirt that had an image of a cartoon panda bear on it, as well as a pair of white pajama shorts that she had no less than five versions of, just in different colors. Quickly, she grabbed one of the makeup wipes that she kept on her bathroom counter and wiped away the mascara on her eyelashes, the concealer under her eyes, as well as the pale pink pigment on her eyelids.

Tossing the used wipe into the bin, Yeri stepped out of the bathroom, leaving the door open for Joy to enter and get out of her school uniform as well, as it clearly didn't look to be the most comfortable attire in the world. However, the raven haired female didn't move, and instead she went about staring at the younger girl, her pupils enlarging slightly as her stomach began to feel like it was a cage numerous butterflies.

". . . do I look that bad without makeup?" Yeri asked, and sadly enough, the comment was only a half-joke.

Joy blinked twice very quickly, the shorter girl's words pulling her from the light trance, and she quickly shook her head in denial.

"Of course not," she stated firmly, "you're always beautiful."

The words slipped out before she could temper them down in any way, and with that, Joy's cheeks turned in color; -the peak of champagne pink. Yeri stifled a smile, swallowing down the words that were left lingering on the tip of her tongue as Joy mumbled a quiet apology that truly wasn't needed in the slightest, lowering her head a bit as she made her way into the bathroom, closing the door behind her rather quickly before pressing her back to the wood and closing her eyes with a sense of cringe welling up inside of her.

She couldn't help what she'd said. After all, Joy had only spoken words of truth, and that was something that she was quite good at, whether that be to her own benefit or to her detriment. Stripping herself down, the raven haired female changed into a pair of dark grey sweatpants and a plain black t-shirt, all with images of Yeri running rampant through her mind.

Her beautifully porcelain skin that seemed flawless whether she had on makeup or not, her warm brown hair that framed her doll like face perfectly, her larger than average eyes, and her wonderfully bowed lips that Joy dared to think about the composition of for just a mere few seconds. . .

Tying her thick hair into a loose ponytail, Joy looked at herself in the mirror wondering why she felt so unlike herself.

But, in reality, she wasn't straying from the person she truly was.

**_Rather, Joy was blooming into herself_**. . .

✦

Yeri smiled, leading Joy through the bundles of people at the shopping mall with a gentle grip on the elder female's wrist. Frankly, the place was sensory overload for Joy in more ways than one, with all the people around, all the different voices blending together into a chaotic mess of noise; -but the excitement of being with Yeri and having her hand gripping onto her body softly was enough to give the raven haired female a buzz that put a stop to all the ways in which her mind was telling her that she should be scared or fearful.

The brunette was simply intoxicating, and more than enough to give Joy the type of peace that she was desperately calling out for in those tumultuous moments in time. However, the elder female couldn't help but to think about how odd it must have been for the people around them to see the two of them together, side by side, despite being such opposites in every way -including in appearances.

Yeri was dressed a stylish mixture of white jeans, black boots, and a pale blue sweater that was very oversized for her short, petite stature, but it suited her perfectly nonetheless in Joy's eyes. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the taller girl was wearing cheap, black graphic hoodie that had been keeping her warm for the past three winters in a row, as well as a pair of blue jeans that were faded from her upper thighs to her knees. While Yeri had light makeup on, nothing more than some lip gloss, mascara, and a bit of concealer, Joy's face was decidedly bare.

"Yeri!" The brunette's name was yelled from across the mall, "over here!"

She scanned her surroundings, her eyes easily finding her three other friends that were patiently waiting for her and Joy's arrival. Upon seeing the three females, Joy's heart sank a little lower, and she began to feel even more self-conscience about herself, the way she looked, her lack of makeup, as well as the way she was dressed. She knew very well that she was going to stick out like a sore thumb among the other four girls.

Irene's silky black hair was down, and she let it hang loosely. But, despite her lack of styling, the strands still seemed to fall perfectly somehow. Just as well, her lightly tinted lips and glowing skin only proved to bring out her natural beauty in a way that shocked Joy upon seeing her. Seulgi's hair was pulled up into a neat bun on the the top of her head, but her bangs were left to fall over her forehead haphazardly. But, despite that, she looked stunning nonetheless, and her makeup was right on point in every way; -from her sharp winged liner, to the crimson lipstick on her mouth, to the curling of her naturally thick eyelashes.

Just as well, Wendy was no exception to the others, with her slightly curly, caramel colored hair, her orange tinted lips with a glossy sheen finish, and her perfect smile on display as soon as Yeri and Joy approached the others. Truthfully, the raven haired female felt intimidated by how pretty the three females were, though she tried not to let that show.

"Hey guys," Yeri was the first to greet the others, gesturing towards Joy with her free hand.

"This is Joy. And, Joy, this is Seulgi, Wendy, and Irene."

"It's nice to meet you," Irene flashed her own smile, only for Wendy to step up and link her arm with the new girl's.

"Your hoodie is so cool," she complimented, tugging lightly on the fabric as she admired the design that was printed across the upper abdomen.

Yeri chose to let go of the raven haired girl's wrist, and while Joy was slightly uncomfortable with the way in which Wendy was clinging to her after meeting less than ten seconds prior, she chose to say nothing of it. After all, she knew that it was much better to get in each of the girl's good graces, and if that meant putting herself out there in a way that was abnormal for her, then she would do so with no questions asked.

With that, Wendy and Joy lead the way, with the younger female quickly warming up to the former's bright, bubbly personality.

"She's beautiful," Seulgi whispered into Yeri's ear.

"Very beautiful," the brunette nodded in agreement, stealing a glance at the taller female from where she was standing in between Irene and Seulgi.

"And she has the most amazing personality. You guys might not get to see it today, because it takes a little while for her to warm up to people, but I promise, she's on of the sweetest, most amazing people that I've ever met."

Irene couldn't help but to smile at the younger girl's words, It was so blatantly obvious that she was very fond of Joy, and she wasn't even attempting to hide it. In fact, it almost seemed as if she was purposefully going out of her way to put her predilection for Joy on display. As the five girls shopped together, there was many laughs shared, a few inside joked created, and Yeri's two worlds seemed to collide perfectly. There was nothing lost nor broken, and the other three accepted Joy into their group so easily that it was practically unbelievable.

The raven haired female just seemed to fit right in. Despite being very different from the other four, her humorous nature helped her to weasel her way into the friend group; -at least for the day. Not to mention the fact that the other girls found Joy's blunt honesty very helpful when picking out makeup and clothes, and they were left insisting that Joy come on another shopping trip with them again the next time she ventured into the upper side. Irene, Seulgi, ans Wendy even went as far as to put their numbers in Joy's phone so that they all could stay in contact.

With a few bags in her hands, filled with various lotions, makeup products, and a few scented candles that she'd taken a liking to while shopping around, Yeri smiled up at Joy happily.

"It'll take Wendy a little while to pick out a pair of boots," the brunette stated with a giggle, "so. . . While we wait on them, let's go try on some clothes in there."

The younger female gestured to a fancy looking clothing store on the opposite side from where the shoe store was. It had a name that looked to be French, or maybe even Italian, but either way, Joy wasn't even going to attempt to pronounce it. Just from the items on the mannequins in the window, the raven haired female assumed that all the clothes inside of that store were going to be quite pricey, and she already felt bad enough for the fact that Yeri had opted to purchase her two bottles of sweet smelling lotion that she'd been openly fond of in one of the stores.

"If you want to try on clothes, I'll go with you and help you pick them out," Joy offered with a smile.

Yeri cocked her head to the side slightly in confusion.

"Don't be silly," she stated, "you can try things on too. You get whatever you want today, Joy. For once, I don't want you to have to worry about money, I just want you to have the things you deserve."

✦

Joy stepped out of the dressing room with the peach pink sweater clinging to her torso in all the right places. It accentuated all the parts of herself that she quite liked, whilst concealing the parts that she wasn't so fond of. For her, the color wasn't something that she would typically wear, as she thought herself to look best in darker colors, and yet she still thought that the top suited her; -and Yeri was very much so inclined to agree.

The brunette was left speechless, as she didn't know how to put her thoughts into words properly. She thought that the elder female looked absolutely stunning, and though it was clearly an atypical style for Joy, it was most definitely one that complimented her body, her eyes, her hair, as well as her skin tone.

"Is it that bad?" The raven haired girl asked, bringing her arms around her midsection out of newfound insecurity.

Joy had taken Yeri's silence as a bad sign, but in reality, the brunette was just attempting to think of a means to articulate herself without coming on too strong.

"No!" The younger girl shook her head quickly, jumping to her feet immediately, "it looks amazing on you! It's almost like it was made specifically for you."

The taller female's cheeks flushed at the compliment.

"You think so?" Joy uncrossed her arms and glanced back into the mirror, albeit a bit hesitantly.

"Absolutely," Yeri replied honestly, "you have to get it! It's perfect for you."

The elder female smiled sheepishly, her gaze flickering between Yeri's face and the pristine tiles of the clothing store.

". . . it's expensive, though," Joy stated, guilt varnishing her words regretfully.

"Please don't worry about money today," the younger girl reached out, daring to take the taller female's hand into her own, "that sweater looks stunning on you, and I want you to have it. I have the luxury of living like this all the time, and I want you to be able to do that too; -even if it's just for this weekend."

The raven haired girl pursed her lips into a tight line, contemplating whether or not to give into her friend's wishes. While she truly did like the sweater, she didn't want to make someone else pay for her things, as that made her feel like a selfish individual.

". . . I just don't want it to seem like I'm only your friend because you buy me things," Joy said, curling her fingers around Yeri's warm hand.

"I'm your friend because you make me feel happy and safe when I'm with you, and I feel terrible about receiving all these things from you and never being able to pay you back for them. I didn't deserve the phone you bought me, I didn't deserve the lotions, and I don't deserve this sweater either."

Yeri said nothing for few prolonged moments, only giving Joy more time to wallow in the shame that she'd been carrying around with her. Her silence only seemed to prove that the raven haired female's words were all true. . .

"I know that," the brunette finally spoke up in response, "and I don't want you to think that I'm trying to buy your friendship. I want you to have the things that make you happy, and I have the means to give those things to you; -to buy them for you. . . I grew up with people just like me, who are rich and never have to worry about money. . . This is new to me, Joy. _You're_ new to me."

Frankly, Joy had never stopped to think about things from Yeri's point of view. At least, not in that way. The two of them were simply two very different people, and that was obvious in their upbringings, as well as their personalities. Yeri was bright, charming, and always radiating a lovely energy that roped others into her web and quickly got them addicted to the way in which she smiled. Joy, on the other hand, was very much so her opposite. She was introverted in nature, with a good heart but a lacking in the people skills department that the former female excelled in.

Yeri was summer, radiating warmth and happiness in every way. Her eyes encapsulated the depths of the oceans and her skin told the story of sticks drug through heated grains of sand on hot July evenings, forming slightly misshapen hearts and loosely visible words. Yeri was sunny days, long nights, and she left multicolored skies in her wake each evening when she laid her weary head to rest on a plush, white pillow.

Joy was winter, radiating a coolness that some found to be unbearable. Her eyes were glazed like an ice covered lake in mid December, her skin was constructed of fallen snowflakes, and her hair was formed from the coals of a fire long since distinguished by chilly winter winds. Joy was a mosaic of cold winter nights, dark, starless skies, and the mystery of her being never failed to leave those around her questioning themselves just as much as they questioned her.

The two girls cashed out, with the elder female purchasing the sweater that Yeri wanted so badly for her to have, as well as a few pairs of jeans that the brunette wanted for herself. The rest of their time at the mall was spent in the food court, giggling and sharing lovely moments together whilst they nibbled on soft pretzels and sipped on sugary sodas without a care in the world. Seulgi, Wendy, and Irene had been invited to join them for their late lunch, but instead, the three girls decided to all go and see a movie that neither Yeri nor Joy was particularly interested in, leaving the two girls alone together.

By the time they arrived back at Yeri's house in the evening, they were each quite tired and they decidedly went to rest in the younger female's bedroom. They sat beside one another on the bed, going through the items they'd purchased on their trip to the mall. Lotions, scented candles, clothing, candies, and an assortment of miscellaneous items that Yeri had bought to decorate her room with were sorted out and placed into different bags.

"What's that?" Joy inquired, pointing her index finger at the tube that Yeri was holding in her right hand.

The younger female glanced at the product out of reflex, although she obviously already knew what it was that she had placed between her own thumb and index finger.

"Lip tint," Yeri responded, flipping the small tube downward in her hand as she pressed it against the top part of her palm's pad; curling the rest of her fingers around it.

"Have you ever used it?"

"No," Joy shook her head, "I don't really wear makeup."

"I don't like to wear too much, otherwise my face feels cakey and sticky," Yeri replied, "but, I love lip tint. It's less heavy than regular lipsticks, and most of the time, I completely forget that I even have it on in the first place."

"The color of that one is pretty," the elder female stated in regard to the reddish-orange pigment of the makeup

The color was bold, but not overwhelmingly so, and Joy couldn't help but to think that Yeri would look stunning in that specific shade. The raven haired girl just knew that it would bring out her smooth skin and her pretty, chocolate irises.

"Do you want to try it on?" The shorter girl asked, cocking her head to the side slightly.

Joy laughed.

"No thanks," she responded, "I've got no clue how to apply any of that stuff. I'll just end up wasting the product and making myself look like a complete clown."

Yeri giggled at the comparison, only to unscrew the cap of the lip tint anyway.

"Come closer," she beckoned, "I'll apply it for you. If you end up hating it, I have makeup wipes in the bathroom, but I really think it'll look beautiful on you."

Joy's cheeks heated up a bit at the passing compliment, and she really hoped that Yeri wouldn't notice the blush on her face. Still, the raven haired female hesitated only slightly in moving closer to the younger female on the bed.

The brunette reached out, her nimble fingers connecting with Joy's skin like a heated blanket as she angled the elder female's head in the way that she wanted it. She tilted the raven haired girl's chin upwards a bit before opening her mouth to speak.

"Part your lips a little," she said softly, speaking in a quieter tone due to how close they were together at that moment in time.

Joy did what was asked of her, opening her mouth slightly. She stared at Yeri as the shorter girl removed the applicator from the tube, seeing as she had nowhere else to look but the younger female's face. A charming look of concentration took over Yeri's features as she went about removing the excess product from the tip of the tint's wand. Lifting her gaze, the brunette tried to steady her hand as best she could, her eyes honing in on Joy's mouth as she focused harshly on putting the product along the seam of the older girl's bottom lip.

With her thoughts beginning to race too quickly for her liking, the taller female drew her own gaze upward, not realizing that she was moving her head along with her eyes.

"Hey," Yeri giggled, gripping Joy's chin lightly with her thumb and forefinger, "don't move, silly."

The raven haired female mumbled a quick apology before patting her lips together at the brunette's request. The shorter girl pursed her lips at the result.

"Just a little more," she dipped the wand back into the product.

Joy had to make sure that she didn't move again, as she certainly didn't want her face to be stained with a line of red-orange makeup where it most certainly was not supposed to be. After a moment or two, the raven haired female couldn't help but to twinge at the feeling of the applicator being replaced by Yeri's finger gently patting and swiping at Joy's bottom lip. Out of reflex, the younger female's own lips had been parted ever so slightly, only adding to the twisting within the elder girl's lower abdomen.

Once again, Joy brushed her lips together lightly, repeating the action a total of six times before she stopped and leaned back a bit.

". . . does it look okay on me?" She asked, nervousness coating her words as Yeri's eyes flickered between her gaze and her mouth.

". . . yeah," the brunette breathed out the word, her mind traveling elsewhere as she felt herself slipping away, "it looks amazing on you, Joy."

Yeri's was looking at the taller female with an unfamiliar expression on her face, her bottom lip just barely drawn between her teeth. It seemed that the brunette was virtually inspecting the elder girl's lips with the way in which she was staring. Time seemed as if it were standing still, and the younger girl inched forward a bit, the tip of her nose brushing past Joy's before their lips slotted together perfectly. It took the raven haired female a moment to truly realize what was happening, as the action took her wildly by surprise. Even still, despite the unexpected nature of what Yeri had initiated, Joy's body went into autopilot, overriding her momentarily stalled brain to push back against the pressure.

As quickly as it began, it was over. The shorter girl pulled away, their lips sticking together slightly from the amount of lip tint that Yeri had applied to Joy's lips just a few seconds prior. The elder female blinked once, then twice, attempting to comprehend what had just transpired between them.

". . . you kissed me," Joy breathed out, slightly dazed.

"I kissed you," Yeri confirmed, although the acknowledgment was just as much so for her as it was for the raven haired girl, "and you kissed me back."

The two girls stared at one another blankly, as neither of them were sure where to venture from there. Inside her chest, Yeri's heart was beating against her ribs, and it was so harsh that she feared Joy could hear the organ thrashing away inside the cavern of her chest from her position opposite the younger female on the bed.

There was an orchestra of chaos blaring inside of the elder girl's brain, and she swallowed thickly, too scared to do anything else. She was scared of everything that was playing out before her. . . Joy had never felt this way before, and it terrified her. Yeri hadn't the slightest clue what to do either. In truth, she hadn't meant to kiss the older girl in such a way, but there was a momentary lapse in her judgement that she couldn't take back even if she'd wanted to do so.

But, really, Yeri didn't want to reverse the action. While a part of her believed that she'd done something filthy or immoral, there was an even bigger part of her that told her that she hadn't done anything to feel dirty for. Her thoughts were racing, but the loudest ones were that in which she was telling herself that she wasn't disgusting for feeling the way that she so clearly did. It was undeniable at that point. . . Yeri liked Joy in a way that could no longer be classified as a simple friendship.

It just wasn't possible.

Her feelings went beyond those that she had towards Wendy, Irene, and Seulgi. They were intrinsically different, and that was just the fact of the matter.

Joy, on the other hand, didn't know what she was feeling in the slightest.Her mind felt like a sea of white noise that was overpowering all background voices that were calling out to her, some telling her to run whilst others told her to pull the younger girl in for another kiss. Somehow, they both found themselves leaning into one another once more, each pair of their lips stained with tint in a messy way. Joy's hand found it's way to the side of Yeri's neck, and the younger female returned that gesture with one of her own, bringing her hand up to the elder girl's cheek.

Their lips didn't touch, but the moment they shared was very intense, and each of their eyes spoke volumes, and their irises wrote novels of love poems that neither of them would dare to speak. They felt lost, but within that, they felt at home somehow. . .

"Yeri?" Her mother called out, breaking through the silence that had fallen between the two girls like a guillotine.

They jerked away from each other, putting space in between their bodies as each of their hearts began to race a mile a minute.

"Can I come in?"

The brunette glanced over at Joy, but all the raven haired female did was swallow nervously and avert her gaze away, not nodding her head nor shaking it yes.

". . . yeah, you can," Yeri decided, moving away from Joy as she swiped the back of her hand across her lips, attempting to remove the makeup that she's gotten on them whilst pressing hers to Joy's.

The latter female simply rubbed her lips together quickly, hoping to disguise the messy look by dispersing the product across the entirety of her lips. Yeri's mother stepped inside of her daughter's bedroom carrying a silver box in her hands. The woman had a wide smile on her face, and she looked so much like Yeri that it was incredible. There was certainly no question as to who the brunette's mother was. . .

"Oh," she paused, "I didn't know you company. It can wait-"

"No, please, don't worry about me," Joy spoke up, "if it's something private, I can wait outside the door."

"No, no, it's nothing like that," her mother assured, "but. . . Since you're here, I think that two opinions might be better than just one."

The female sat the silver box on the bed between her daughter and her friend, allowing the both of them to see what was inside of it. The interior was lined with a black velvet mound, and atop he dark material was a set of stunning diamond jewellery that made Joy's jaw drop in amazement.

"Oh!" Yeri reached out, plucking one of the three necklaces from the container as if it were a natural occurrence for her, "is this the winter collection?"

"Part of it," her mother responded, "there's still a set of earrings and a bracelet in the works, but they should be finished by Monday morning."

"Are the diamonds real?" Joy asked, admiring the necklace in Yeri's hand, as she wasn't brave enough to reach out and hold one in her own.

"Of course," the woman answered, "all the stones and metals that I use in my works are one hundred percent authentic."

From the way that her eyes glimmered when she spoke about her creations, Joy could tell that Yeri's mother was very, very passionate about her career.

"They're incredible," Joy stated, her gaze falling upon the box once more where she let her eyes take in the art before her.

"They are," Yeri agreed, "I think this is my favorite collection yet, since last year's autumn set."

"Well, I'm glad you both think so," her mother smiled kindly, "because this is the original set, and now that the designs are sent off and ready to be produced by the company, the two of you can split this collection between you."

Joy's jaw dropped, but for Yeri, this was a commonplace occurrence that took place with each new collection of jewellery that her mother created. Before the raven haired female could protest and say that she couldn't even think to accept such an expensive gift from anyone, Yeri's mother told them to have fun, to bundle up if they were to go outside, and with that said, she left the two teens to decide between themselves who would get each piece.

And, with the new excitement flooding the air around them, the kiss they'd shared was pushed into the backs of their minds. . .


	3. ❝THREE.❞

Winter raged on, and while Joy and Yeri were hard pressed to see one another in person, they never went a single day without a call, or, at the very least, a small text conversation. The kiss wasn't spoken of, and although they both remembered it clearly, the two females each decided that they would simply leave it be. Yeri had become rather embarrassed of what she's done, and because of that, she was far too ashamed of her own actions to actively seek out a conversation about what had taken place. Joy, on the other hand, didn't feel the need to bring it up because she didn't want to have her heart broken.

While the brunette had had her fair share of high school boyfriends, Joy had never been in a relationship. She didn't ever have the time to pursue anything of the sort, and frankly, if she had the time, she most certainly wouldn't have been seeking out the affections of anyone from her own high school. There wasn't a single chance of that happening. However, the raven haired female had indeed begun to feel something stronger than friendship for the younger girl. Joy wasn't sure when it began, how it began, or even why; -all she knew was that it was there, and her fondness for Yeri was somehow always creeping into the forefront of her mind.

She felt that it was slightly inappropriate of her to have such feelings for another person whilst her and her mother were still in a bit of a financial rut. Of course, things had been getting better after a lifetime of struggles, especially since Joy had been given those few pieces of jewellery from the brunette's mother, which she'd admittedly pawned for cash the very day she arrived home from Yeri's house.

She kept one of the necklaces, the one with a pendant attached to it that encapsulated a winter scene with finely drawn snowflakes, the silhouette of a tree, as well as the general outline of a full moon, but the others were traded in for what they were worth in money. Joy felt bad about it, and it made her feel incredibly guilty to have done it in the first place, but in the end she knew that it was for the greater good.

The extra funds had given her mother the time to spend with her daughter that had been lacking so greatly throughout the raven haired female's entire life. It was an amazing feeling to have been able to spend time with the woman that she admired most in the world, and it felt even better for Joy to see her mother feeling stable with their position for once. The worries were forgotten for a bit, and the two of them were able to exist in a way that wasn't a constant struggle of turmoil.

"Joy," her mother said in a soft tone of voice as she reached over in order to hold her daughter's hand, "I'm so incredibly proud of you."

". . . proud of me?" The eighteen year old inquired, looking over at the woman who'd given her life, "for what?"

"For everything," her mom answered, putting a slight bit of pressure on her grip, "for working so hard since you were fifteen to help us keep a steady income. For being so understanding of my work schedule, and for becoming so independent since I haven't always been here to be the best parent."

"But, you _have_ been the best parent," Joy stated firmly.

"Being a good parent isn't always about being around every second of every day to look after every bruise or cut that I get. It's about taking care of your kids, and always making sure that they feel loved, and you've worked every single day to take care of me, even on the days when you were sick. I'm happy that you're proud of me, but. . . You should be just as proud of yourself as you are of me. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to do any of this at all."

That moment that they shared was the one that they truly needed. It was a necessary conversation that, more than likely, should have taken place a long time ago. However, the lateness of the talk didn't stop it from meaning the entire world to either of them.

After all, it's better late than never. . .

"I love you," her mother said to her, pulling her child into a hug that warmed her to the very core of her soul, no matter how cold it was outside and no matter how hard it was snowing.

"I love you too, mom."

After another episode of the silly game show they were watching on the couch together, Joy's mother decided to turn herself in for the night. It was still rather early, but the raven haired female said nothing of it, as she wanted her mom to get all the rest that she possibly could. Her mother had worked countless hours, ones that were only exacerbated by the overtime she'd elected to take to give their household more income each month, and as far as Joy was concerned, her mother could sleep for as long as she damn well pleased because she had earned it.

Joy herself, however, wasn't feeling tired enough to lie down at that point, so she flipped through the channels on the television, eventually landing on a random crime show that she couldn't follow the story line of very well considering the fact that she tuned in halfway through the show's run time. It didn't seem to be very interesting either, which was disappointing considering the fact that the premise of the episode was presumably about solving the murder of a top rated college student that was living a double life as an escort.

Even so, the characters fell flat and left a lot for the imagination, which was something Joy had never particularity liked when it came to story telling. She didn't see herself as being the most creative individual, so she much preferred it when books or movies or television shows could simply give her the story and show each bit of it, rather than attempting to make her come up with her own conclusion as to what was happening.

But, that got her thinking. . . She was doing just that when it came to her own relationship with Yeri. The kiss hadn't been spoken of, and the two girls were dancing, flipping, and teetering on the edge of something that, in all honesty, was quite frightening for the elder girl. The both of them were walking that fine line between being "just friends" and being something so much more than that. It was confusing to say the very least, but even still, Joy did her best to always make Yeri happy, because at the end of every conversation, it didn't matter if they were dating or if they were just close friends.

It didn't matter because the taller female planned on having the younger girl in her life in any way, shape, or form that she could have her. It didn't matter how. All Joy cared about was having Yeri as a presence in her life, and as long as the brunette was a stable, unwavering entity that she could speak with each day, even if just for a minute or two, the raven haired female was satisfied with that.

Still, Joy couldn't honestly say that she wasn't yearning for the two of them to cross that line confidently. The kiss they shared was, without a doubt, something that the older girl wouldn't at all have been opposed to repeating. Joy could practically taste Yeri's cherry chapstick on the tip of her tongue, and her heart flipped in her chest as she thought back to that moment. It wasn't exactly the way that she'd pictured having her first kiss, but even still, there was nobody else in the world that Joy would have rather shared such an intimate moment with.

So, what then? Where was she to go from there? There was always the option to leave things alone and just let them continue on the way they had been for the past month and a half. However, when she thought about doing so, Joy just couldn't get that to sit right with her. The raven haired female didn't want things to remain that way forever; -stuck between loving Yeri as friend and loving her as a partner.

As the minutes ticked by, Joy was at a standstill, lost within her own mind as the television switched to the next episode of that same crime show that the eighteen year old wasn't particularly fond of. She went back and forth between her options, deciding that it would be best to leave everything be as it was, only to then backtrack that conclusion and come to the opposite one, and then the cycle repeated itself once more.

She wasn't getting anywhere, and that was the most frustrating thing about the predicament. She wanted to come to a decision that night and make peace with the voices in her head, but that didn't seem to be anything that was anywhere even close on the horizon. All she saw in front of her was a wide, open sea with hundreds of possibilities and a mystery of a million questions; -a maze that she was trapped inside of, and she just hoped that she wouldn't lose herself inside of it.

✦

Yeri smoothed her skirt out in the bathroom mirror, sucking in a small breath as she leaned forward, patting her lips together lightly just in case her lip tint hadn't been smoothed out properly whilst she was applying it in front of her vanity mirror. Her skin looked like that of a porcelain doll, smooth and flawless in texture, and her doll like eyes were accentuated by the multiple layers of light mascara that she'd applied onto them. With a light blush color on the apples of her cheeks, her brown hair newly straightened, and her school uniform fitted to her body perfectly, she truly felt ready for the oncoming day ahead of her.

She smiled lightly, feeling pleased with her own reflection for the time being. A horn rang out, alerting the brunette of the fact that her driver was waiting for her outside, and the seventeen year old grabbed her backpack off of her desk, slinging one of the straps over her right shoulder as she rushed down the stairs, out the door, and into the backseat. It was picture day at her school, and she was lucky enough to be part of the first class that was to have their photographs taken, so there would be little to no time for her makeup or hair to be messed up.

"Is today a special occasion?" Jaejin inquired, noting the fact that Yeri had put extra effort into her appearance that morning.

"It's picture day," the brunette stated, "I don't want to look bad in the yearbook."

With no further questions, Jaejin pulled out of the driveway and into the road, whilst Yeri took her phone from her pocket and snapped a quick selfie, smiling for the picture since she knew she would be sending it to Joy. She added a quick message to the photo, simply stating that she hoped the elder girl would have a good day.

The raven haired girl saw the text message almost instantly, and she didn't bother to reply with a message in return. Instead, she chose to call the younger girl's phone and talk to her in that manner, as it was the closest she could get to seeing Yeri in person and hearing her voice.

"You look beautiful," were the first words Joy uttered once the brunette answered her call, and the blush that tinted Yeri's cheeks at that compliment was a far cry from being artificial.

"Thanks, Joy," the shorter female replied, "I miss you. . . I can't stand the thought of having to wait until spring to see you in person again."

"Well, about that. . ." the elder female said, trailing off slightly before continuing on with her words, "I was thinking that maybe we could meet up on New Years Eve."

Yeri's heart raced at that proclamation. She hadn't considered that as a possibility, as she'd just assumed that Joy would be spending that holiday with her mother, and the younger girl didn't want to get in the way of that. However, the raven haired female's mom was unable to get both holidays off of work, so she had to choose between spending Christmas day with Joy, or spending New Years with her, and when push came to shove, Christmas won out by a long shot.

"Absolutely!" The brunette stated excitedly.

"My mom and dad are going to a party, so I'll be at home alone, and it'll be so much more fun to have someone to spend New Years with!"

Joy couldn't help but to agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment.

"I think so too," the taller female replied, "so, I'll definitely be there."

"Great! I'll have Jaejin pick you up so that you don't have to walk all that way-"

"Actually, Yeri. . . I think I'd rather walk this time," Joy cut her off.

"Are you sure?" The shorter girl's eyes widened a bit.

"I mean, it's not _that far, _but it's the dead of winter, and I can just have him come and get you so that you don't have to walk all the way to my house."

"Don't worry about that," the taller female reassured her, "I'll take care of it. Just know that I'll be there before midnight, and we'll go into the new year together. I promise."

Yeri wanted to protest, but she knew Joy well enough to understand that when her mind was set on doing something that she would accomplished it whether anyone liked it or not, and that was that. So, the brunette decided that it was best to simply let the elder female do as she pleased.

"Okay," Yeri sighed giving in, "I'll see you then, Joy. And, since you'll be there, I'm going to have your Christmas present ready for you to open!"

"And I'll have yours with me for you to open too," the older girl answered with a grin.

"Anyway, I have to get going now or I'll be late for school. I'll call you later, if I get the chance."

Once more, Yeri wanted to protest about Joy giving her any type of gift for the holiday, but before she could do so, the dark haired female had hung up, the line had went dead on her end, and she was well on her way to school for the day. The brunette didn't bother to worry about it, though. After all, she understood completely that Joy was a free spirit who was going to do exactly what she wanted, and in truth, that was one of the most admirable things about the raven haired girl in Yeri's eyes.

Joy was different. She was unlike anyone that the younger female had ever met. Yeri had grown up surrounded by rich people, or at the very least, upper middle class individuals at times. But, to be exposed to a girl like Joy was something that Yeri had to take in stride. Everything that she was experiencing was incredibly nuance, at least from her personal perspective. The feelings, the thoughts, the bond she'd come to form with Joy, as well as the seemingly nonsensical attraction that she'd developed towards the raven haired female.

Yeri had only ever dates males. That was all she was surrounded by. . . Heterosexual relationships were the standard, and truthfully, the brunette had never been one to question that. She never thought that she, personally, had a reason to do so in the first place. But now, looking back on everything with hindsight being twenty-twenty, she couldn't help but to realize things about herself that she never bothered to pay attention to.

Being anything less than straight was something that scared her to think about. Yeri had always done her best to blend in and move swiftly along with the crowds, because she didn't _want_ to be the type of person to stand out. She was perfectly okay with her small circle of friends, her happy life, her healthy outlooks, and that was that. Or, it was supposed to be, anyway. . .

Whether that was the case any longer was, very obviously, up for debate.

Joy was a girl. . . But, even still, Yeri felt affections for her in a manner that seemed to overstep the bounds of friendship in nearly every way imaginable, and that left the brunette questioning just who she was, what her identity was, as well who it was that she wanted to become.

"Have a good day, Yeri," Jaejin spoke up, pulling the seventeen year old from her thoughts and making her aware of the fact that they'd arrived at the school gates.

"Ah," the sound fell from her lips quickly as she grabbed her bag off of the car floor and opened the door to get out, "thank you for the ride. Have a good day, Jaejin."

With that, Yeri closed the door and rushed into the school, attempting to limit the amount of time that the nippy winter weather had to send goosebumps racing across her sensitive skin. Unlike most days, it was clear that almost every student had gone the extra mile to make themselves up and look above average for the pictures that were to be taken of each of them.

"Yeri," Irene was the first to approach her at her locker, with Seulgi and Wendy following along albeit rather slowly, "you look so cute!"

"Thank you," the younger girl responded, but she couldn't help but to notice the fact that when Irene told her that she looked good, it didn't make her feel the same way it did when Joy said it.

There was a distinct difference in the reaction that occurred within her brain and within her chest. While she clearly loved Irene very much, and she obviously appreciated the compliment she'd given her, Yeri just didn't feel an overwhelming sense of vehemence in the way that she did when Joy was the one telling her that she looked nice.

It wasn't the same. . .

_Joy_ wasn't the same. . .

Park Joy was a snowstorm in the middle of December, the type that leaves destruction in its path and extinguishes every last shred of warmth from every living, breathing thing in its path. Joy was the type of storm that's spoken of for years to come; -the kind that winter songs are written about and the kind that most people fear with every shred of their being.

In Yeri's case, however, she wasn't afraid. Despite her sensitivity to the cold, regardless of her delicate body temperature regulation, negligent of her easily affected skin, she didn't fear that storm in any way whatsoever. If anything, she loved it. She _relished in it_.

"Irene. . . Can I ask you something?" Yeri inquired, closing her locker gently as she held her first period textbook to her chest.

"Of course you can," the elder female answered quickly, just as Yeri knew she would, "you know that."

The brunette pursed her lips for a moment or two, only to open her mouth and spit the words out very quickly.

"How do you know when you're in love with someone?"

She was done beating around the bush. She didn't see the point in doing so anymore, because all that she wanted was an answer to her question, and sugarcoating everything didn't seem to be getting her anywhere. Just as well, keeping silent and leaving everything up to the imagination wasn't doing a single thing for her either. . . It was a vicious cycle of doubt, worry, and infatuation.

The question took Irene aback, and that was evident by the way her face changed rapidly, her eyes widening a bit and her glossed lips parting ever so slightly in shock. Still, being the mature individual that she was, she quickly composed herself and formulated a response as best she possibly could.

"Well, I think it usually depends on the person and on the situation," she replied, feeling quite unsure about how to respond given the fact that she'd never personally experiences such a thing.

"I've heard some people say that it was a subtle flip in how they looked at someone, but, I've also heard that it can hit you like a brick out of nowhere. Either way, I don't think there's any right or wrong way to fall in love. . . It's just something that happens, and there's really nothing that we can do to control it, even if we tried."

That answer wasn't very helpful, but at the same time, it wasn't wrong either. There truly was no right or wrong way to fall in love, or to be in love, and that was precisely why Yeri was so confused by it as a whole. Even in her current standings, she could remember being a little girl playing princess with her kindergarten friends that she no longer had contact with, and she remembered talking about how she wanted to marry a handsome prince, or even a knight in shining armor.

Looking back on that, it seemed she was incredibly wrong. . . Who was she to think that it had to be a male she fell for so deeply? Why couldn't it be a princess, or, even better, why couldn't her knight in shining armor be a girl? Hell, who said that Yeri _herself_ couldn't be the knight?

". . . this is all so frustrating," the brunette sighed, resisting the urge to run her hand through her hair, as that would only mess up the work she'd put into that part of her appearance that morning.

"Most things seem complicated when you're just a teenager," Irene noted wisely.

"At this point, we're all stuck trying to please our parents, our friends, our teachers. . . Everyone, really. We're trying to decide where we want our lives to go from here, what kind of things we want to do, what career paths we want to take. It's a really hectic time for everyone, even if we don't always let that show. But, my mom always tells me that the things we think are scary right now will be the things we value the most in the future."

Yeri let those words sink into her brain, pushing easily past her skull. She knew that Irene was right, that her desire to please people and keep up a certain type of image was playing a role in each decision she made, whether that was subconsciously or not. But, was a reputation among a group of people that wouldn't care enough to remember her name in a few years time more valuable than the person she cared for so deeply? Was it really worth that much?

"I just. . . I wish that everything could be easy. I wish that feelings weren't so confusing," Yeri stated, a disheartened tone lacing each word she uttered.

"The easiest things to get and keep in life are the things that don't mean very much in the long run," Irene replied.

"If it's the easiest thing in the world to get, then it's probably not worth having."

Once more, Irene's vast knowledge left the younger girl questioning herself even more. Yeri would've elected to continue the conversation and pick her friend's brain some more that morning, but unfortunately, her class was called over the intercom to place their things in the classroom at their assigned seats and then make their way to the room where the pictures were being taken that day.

With a small wave and a quietly added thanks for the helpful words she'd been given, Yeri did as she was instructed, following the rules as she always did, despite the fact that her head was up in the clouds. . .

✦

"Seoyeon, could you give me some advice on something?" Joy questioned one evening.

The diner was just about to close for the night, and there hadn't been a present customer in nearly three hours. The raven haired girl had been holding her tongue the whole time, too nervous to ask for the help that she was desperate to receive from an older, more experienced individual.

Seoyeon stopped wiping down the last table, quickly nodding her head in confirmation. The two of them sat down, keeping their arms off of the slightly damp table top as they spoke.

"Did something happen?"

_Yes_, Joy thought to herself, _summer happened in the middle of winter, and it's thrown my seasons out of balance and my world off its axis. This is the time of year that I'm supposed to be cold, but I feel nothing but warmth, like there's a roaring fireplace inside of my stomach and hot coals in my veins_. . .

". . . not directly," Joy stated, though her tone of voice made it sound more like a question rather than a statement of fact, "it's just that. . . I have this secret that I've never told anyone, not even my mom, and it's such an intricate part of who I am that I just wish I could be myself without feeling guilty for it."

_I wish that love wasn't dictated by genitals. I wish that I could rip this part of me out of my chest and be just like everyone else. I wish that I could kill the part of myself that would tear my world apart if they knew me like I know myself_. . .

"Joy, everyone you meet is going to have an opinion on you in one way or another, and out of the thousands of people that you'll meet throughout your lifetime, it's completely impossible that every single one of them will walk away with the opinion that you're good. My mother and father raised me to be a housewife, and they told me that working is the job of my husband. . . Clearly, I don't really abide by that type of thinking. I have a husband who works, but so do I, and I love running this diner, no matter what part of the city it's located in and no matter what my parents think of it," Seoyeon said.

". . . I'm scared," Joy admitted, her throat tightening as her eyes began to fill with burning tears that threatened to spill over her bottom row of eyelashes.

"That's only natural," the elder woman stated, keeping her voice gentle, "growing up is a scary thing. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, because you'll learn from them. Trust me, I've made a million of them, and they can be used as really good lessons down the lines. The one thing I want you to remember is that, no matter what, no matter who you know or who you meet, you should never be afraid to be yourself. There's someone out there in the world that will love every part of you, no matter how much you might not like yourself at times."

Joy forced herself to smile. As scared as she was about everything that the world had brought her way, she understood that there was nothing she could do to change herself. . . Nothing works that way, no matter how many nights that she spent attempting to wish for something to be different upon her wake.

On her way home, the raven haired girl found herself staring up at the sky, and she couldn't help but to take comfort in the fact that Yeri was there in their quaint city that was nothing more than a speck in the grand scheme of the Earth as whole, and even less than such within their universe, but even still, the two of them were under the same sky; -under the same stars. . .

Joy shivered, pulling her thin jacket tighter around her body as she kept her feet moving, ignoring the snowflakes that had slipped inside of her tennis shoes. She was surrounded by the type of cold weather that sunk into her bones, chilling her to the very core. However, she was still one step ahead of the atmosphere, because one thought of Yeri's summertime smile, and she was well on her way to internal warmth; -the type that external warmth couldn't even begin to compare to.

Still, the dark haired female was relieved when she walked through her front door, quickly kicking her shoes off and tugging off her damp socks. Entering the bathroom, Joy looked at her own reflection, touching her frigid fingertips to her rosy cheeks. As nervous as she was for the future, she decided that it would be best to let the cards be dealt as they may. . .

Sliding under the covers, Joy turned down the brightness of her phone screen, as the light was beginning to hurt her eyes. Just as she did every so often, the raven haired female found herself going back to the text conversations that she'd shared with Yeri, and she smiled as she read the younger girl's words in her voice, and in doing so, the eighteen year old found herself getting lost in a massive expanse of memories that had been seared into the matter of her brain.

It started softly, gently, and silently; -two cups of watered down hot chocolate shared in the yellow lighting of a tiny diner on a crisp autumn night. Their story began like a shadow at dusk, a light drizzle from the sky, an imaginary monster under the bed. It was initiated amidst brisk winds and falling leaves, creeping up slowly, gradually, inconspicuously. . .

Joy didn't realize it at the time, -but, then again, neither did Yeri. Neither of them noticed the way in which the strings of their separate fates intertwined, tangling their destinies together and tying the courses of their lives together abruptly. God knows when it truly came to the forefront of her mind. . . Joy couldn't have given an answer. She didn't know when it began. All she was truly aware of was the fact that she looked at Yeri like she put the stars in the sky; -she looked at Yeri with love poems inscribed into her irises and love songs tattooed on her retinas.

Such a dangerous game. . .

It was a silent killer as it crept into her thoughts, carving itself into her mind and nestling itself in her chest. There, it came to settle in her rib cage, lying dormant there for the time being, just waiting for her to acknowledge its presence within her. It was slow and reticent, but then it happened all at once. . .

Unfortunately, those love songs in Joy's eyes ever never seemed to exist when they were put to the harsh test of reality. The only melodies that seemed to play for them were tempered and dull, the tempo waiting patiently to come in and the beat waiting hesitantly to drop. The chorus was nothing more than uncertain harmonies, wavering back and forth with each note that sounded out into the atmosphere, and the bridge would mimic that of late night phone calls shared between two teenage girls with their walls down low and their true feelings perched on the tips of their tongues.

Joy had never been fond of love songs anyway. . .

There was something about them that was hard to grasp and completely impossible to capture. No jaunty lines or crooked edges, no nooks or crannies to hide inside of. Something about Yeri and Joy always seemed to be somewhat fading; -not gone, but somehow, not quite there either. Shadow touches, the ghost of a single shared kiss, the faint whispering of "goodnight" when the moon took its place in the sky overhead. . . A love song left half written on a piece of crinkled notebook paper, affections that are felt, but never spoken of directly.

It was too touchy, far too taboo. The elephant in the room.

Their relationship, whatever it was, seemed so easy to miss, so easy to let go of, and Joy wondered if Yeri would do so one day. It was difficult to comprehend, nearly impossible to hold, so hard to see at times. Look at the fine print. Read between the lines. Find the needle in the haystack.

It certainly wasn't easy. . .

But Joy knew that good things never come about easily anyway.

Despite their differences, the raven haired female understood that she and Yeri went well together. It was odd that winter and summer could get along so perfectly, but they did just that. With Yeri's ocean eyes, rose petal lips, and her summertime smile, she balanced out Joy's snowy skin, icy eyes, and black ice hair. With Yeri's yellow laughter and Joy's blue whispers, they made a shade of emerald green that encapsulated the new beginnings and the light showers of spring.

It was rather beautiful how Yeri's bright, vibrant yellow that set off sparks in the hearts of everyone she'd ever touched with her presence, could mix with Joy's muted, subdued blue that left people questioning her greatly, could mix together so perfectly and create such a beautiful green in its wake.

And green, for the record, was a color that the raven haired girl could learn to love. . .

✦

The days went by much faster than expected. Christmas presents were given, new layers of snow fell from the sky, and New Years was awaited like a tiny baby waiting idly to be fed. Joy looked in the mirror one last time, her raven hair flowing smoothly with a pretty sheen to it. She'd used her mother's few inexpensive makeup products to doll herself up a bit, adding red lipstick for a pop of color and smoothing her skin out with foundation. She'd even gone as far as to shape her eyebrows with the help of an online tutorial that she had to watch more than a handful of times to get the results she so desired.

Just as well, her mother's winter coat adorned her body, and she didn't dare to stop herself from smiling at the faint scent of cheap perfume that was practically soaked into the fabric. Underneath of that buttoned up coat, Joy had on the beautiful peach pink sweater that Yeri had been kind enough to purchase for her at the mall. She paired that with her favorite pair of black skinny jeans that she'd gotten on sale back in the summer, and she'd only ever worn them once before that night out of fear that she might stain them at work, but the raven haired girl thought that it was the perfect occasion to bring them out again.

Before setting out to venture to Yeri's house, Joy slipped the small, wooden box that she'd found in the local junk shop into her pocket, making sure to use the velcro clasp to keep the item from slipping out of her pocket. The box housed Joy's first ever set of online purchases, although they'd all been merged together to create one, singular item that the raven haired girl was almost positive Yeri would love. With the mixture of the right online stores and some coupons she was gifted along the way for signing up to new websites here and there, she'd managed to stay below the budget she'd set for herself for buying Christmas gifts, and that was something Joy hadn't expected at all.

For her mother, she'd gotten her a set of moisturizers and scented candles, because she knew that her mom loved those sorts of things, and the way her eyes lit up when she opened the present on Christmas morning made Joy realize that she had indeed picked the right things.

For Yeri, on the other hand, Joy bought something very dainty and cute. It started off as just a simple, silver bracelet that had nothing attached to it, but it looked like something that the brunette would really like, so the elder female purchased it off of a website that allowed her to get fast, free shipping. Upon arrival, however, Joy decided that it was simply too plain, and that she wanted to give Yeri a more exciting gift after all the amazing things that the younger female had done for her since they'd met.

The raven haired girl had asked her mother for advice on the subject, and her mom suggested that she look for little charms to put on it, because that would not only make it more exciting to look at, but it could also be representative of moments they'd shared in their friendship. From there, Joy found five different charms that were symbolic of different things her and Yeri had done together throughout their friendship.

The first charm was a miniature cup of hot chocolate. It was the one that took the longest to find, but it was well worth it, because the quality of the product was nothing short of stellar. It was adorable in every sense of the word, and it encapsulated the night the two girls first met when Yeri sauntered into the diner and purchased two cups of hot chocolate that the two of them sipped on whilst talking and smiling.

The second charm was a sun, which Joy bought because she felt that it captured Yeri's warm and bright disposition. It represented the younger girl's ability to bring about happiness into the hearts of those around her and, in the older girl's eyes, it was tied in with the way in which Yeri seemed to breathe new life into her surroundings at any given point in time.

The third charm was a pendant, much like the one that Yeri's mother had created for the winter collection of her jewellery line, except the tiny picture inside of it was a bit different. Instead of having a snow scene encapsulated inside of it, the charm had a starry night sky pictured inside of it, and that signified the night in which they sat in the park side by side, their young hearts beating in sync with the Earth's own heartbeat as they gazed up at the stars together.

The fourth charm was another pendant, though the design on that one was much less intricate. Instead of being a starry night sky, it had the image of two hands connecting in a pinky promise engraved on it, and to Joy, that illustrated their pure, innocent friendship that had blossomed into something a bit more mature somewhere along the line.

The fifth, and final, charm was a replica of the human heart made out of a shiny, silver material. It represented the way in which Yeri had proven to steal the taller girl's heart, and in attaching that charm to the brunette's bracelet, it was symbolic of the fact that Joy didn't want it back. It was her own subtle way of telling Yeri that she could keep it.

Whether she would want to. . . Now, that was a completely different story.

Joy kept walking, her long legs carrying her along the snow covered sidewalks as she made her way to the upper side of the city. There, the street lamps illuminated her walking path properly, which was in direct contrast to the fading, often blinking bulbs that could be found on the lower side district. Snow danced in the light that poured down from the perfectly working light bulbs, a choreographed ballet conducted by the chilling wind. The street she was walking along looked like an unfinished painting. So much of the canvas was left white, as if it were desperately calling out for the return of a artist's skilled hand.

Her breath was pale against the numbing air, coming out in a smoke-like mist in front of her face each time she exhaled, her warm breath connecting with the frosty air. Joy blinked thoughtfully as the cold air kissed her angelic face. A short distance away, the raven haired girl could see Yeri's house, and she noted quite quickly that one of the lights on the second floor of the house was turned on, illuminating the curtain covered window with a slightly ominous yellow glow. She assumed that it was Yeri's bedroom light that was turned on.

Joy slipped her phone from her pocket, holding the device quite close to her body so that it wouldn't be damaged by the snow. She simply wanted to check the time; -nothing more, nothing less. There was a measly sixteen minutes before the new year officially came around, and the raven haired female sped up her walking pace a bit, but not so much so that she was in danger of slipping in the snow.

Inside, Yeri was pacing back and forth, just waiting for Joy's arrival. She didn't doubt that the elder female was going to follow through on her promise to be there before midnight, but even still, the brunette couldn't help but to worry that something may have happened to Joy on her way there. They lived in a city after all, and though it was quite a safe community overall, there was always the possibility that one crazy, deranged person could flip a situation on its head and turn their, for the most part, quiet city into a crime scene.

Yeri fiddled with the ends of oversized sweater's sleeves, playing with the ashy grey fabric that went down past her small hands. In the light of her room, the brunette's thin layer of sparkly nail polish shimmered subtly. Her lips were tinted with a strawberry pink color, just along the inside seam of her lips, and from there it went into a nice gradient until her natural lip color shone through. Her makeup was done to perfection, applied with even more finesse and care than it was on her picture day at school.

Not to mention the fact that she much preferred her own style of an oversized grey sweater and a pair of black leggings to the uncomfortable school uniform that her education system forced upon her and the rest of her classmates. For what felt like the millionth time over, Yeri made her way over to the window, moving her curtains out of the way in order to peer out onto the street, looking for any sign of her friend who was supposed to be arriving soon.

Her eyes widened and they glistened with happiness when she spotted the taller girl very close to the house. The hood of the coat she was wearing was pulled up over her head, blocking her raven strands of hair from the falling snowflakes. A trim of faux fur framed her head, and the younger female rushed down the stairs, quickly opening up the front door so that Joy could enter and not have to wait any longer to get out of the cold.

She pushed the coat's hood away from her head, letting her black hair tumble down in slight waves that were natural to her texture. Her hair was quite thick, cascading down her delicate skin like midnight waves on a sandy beach. Yeri couldn't resist the urge to throw her arms around the elder female's neck and pull her into a hug, one that was laced with the unspoken words of "I've missed you to the point that my soul was beginning to ache." Her embrace was warm, and the world around the both of them seemed to melt away like ice cream on a summer's day.

"I missed you so much," Joy dared to breath out, her words making her out to be extremely desperate, which was, in reality, not far from the truth of the matter.

Yeri pulled away, grabbing hold of the raven haired female's hand and pulling her to the stairs with great enthusiasm.

"I think you're going to love the Christmas present I got for you," the brunette said happily.

"I think you'll love what I got you too," Joy replied, just as equally enthusiastic as the younger girl.

She brought her hand to her coat pocket, patting it lightly, feeling the hardness of the small wooden box inside of it. Joy felt a sense of relief wash over her body like a wave when she realized that it was still there, and although there was very little risk, if any at all, that it wouldn't have been upon her arrival, it still felt alleviating to know for certain that the present was still there, tucked away safely.

The two girl's entered Yeri's bedroom, and the memories all came flooding back to Joy as she stepped inside. . . Lip tint being applied to her mouth one moment, and then within the blink of an eye, the shorter female's lips were on hers, kissing her tenderly. A movie playing on the flat screen television whilst the two of them inched close to one another on the bed until Yeri's head was gingerly resting on Joy's shoulder and the elder female's hand was placed over top of the brunette's. A blanket shared between them as the night dwindled down and their eyes became clouded with sleep, and in their tired hazes, Yeri snuggled closer, even going as far as to drape her arm over Joy's torso as she drifted off into dreamland.

Walking that line like they did so often, playing with fire so carelessly, and one of them was bound to get burned. Summer and winter don't mix. . .

But, would it be so wrong of Park Joy to simply hold onto summer for a little while longer? Just for a few more minutes, until the new year came around, and then she could allow the both of them to move on with their lives. She could cut the strings between them and stop herself from falling any more in love with Kim Yerim than she already had. It could end so simply, so subtly, just as it began. . . Their misty love could be laid to rest under the light of a thousand stars. Joy could bury it in the snow and stop the hurricane before it started.

She could end their story there and allow their lives to go back to normal. Joy didn't want to be the one who took the younger girl's life as she knew it and tipped it on its head, leaving Yeri dazed and confused. The raven haired girl refused to do that to someone that she cared about.

**_If I love her, I'll let her go_**. . . _**And with that, she can take my heart with her**_. . .

"You can open mine first," Yeri held out a bag to the taller girl.

It was layered with bright pink tissue paper, and the bag in itself was completely black. There was no discerning details on it, as it was utterly blank, so there was nothing to give Joy any hints as to what was inside of it. It seemed that she would just have to open it and find out.

She glanced between the brunette and the bag, smiling lightly as she pulled it open and gently removed the tissue paper from inside, placing it on Yeri's desk. Joy reached down into it, clutching onto whatever it was that she'd been given as a late Christmas gift.

"Oh my gosh," the elder girl smiled.

In her hand, she held a duffel bag. It was the same bag that Yeri had caught her admiring at the mall all those weeks ago, on the same day that they'd shared a kiss. The trim of the bag was black, but the rest of the fabric was precisely dyed an ombre of colors; -going from blue at the very bottom, to a pale pink in the middle, and finally, a hot pink at the top.

The brunette had purchased it for her because she's seen the rough state that Joy's original black, leather bag was in, and she wanted her friend to have something better than that, something prettier that better suited her taste. The design mixed black and neon colors together so beautifully. . .

"Do you like it?" Yeri inquired, albeit a bit nervously.

"I love it!" Joy answered, her eyes shimmering brightly.

"I can't believe you remember which one that I was looking at."

"I'm glad," the shorter girl replied, "I was a little worried that I'd picked up the wrong one. It's a little brighter than the things you normally like, but still. . . I think you'll look great with it."

"I don't know about that part," the elder female stated, a light blush rising to her cheeks at the compliment, "but, thank you. I really do love it, and I hope that you'll like what I got you too. . . "

Joy sat her gift down on Yeri's desk, and she reached into her pocket pulling out the small, wooden box. Her hands were shaking lightly, and the younger girl took notice of that, but she said nothing of it out of fear that she may accidentally embarrass Joy by pointing it out. Instead, she simply took the object from Joy's shaky hand and gave the elder female the most comforting smile she could possibly muster.

Yeri bit back a wide grin, as she didn't want to smile too expressively before she even opened the present officially. She flipped the little metal clasp open before flipping the lid upward, revealing what was inside. The brunette couldn't help but to utter a small gasp at what she saw. Despite living with a jewellery designer for a mother, this piece was something that really struck her heart in all the right ways.

"Joy. . . " she breathed out, taking the charm bracelet into her hand, holding it up as she admired it fondly.

Her eyes trailed over the small hot chocolate charm, then the sun, the starry night sky pendant, as well as the pinky promise symbol. But, then she noted the human heart charm, and Yeri couldn't have possibly formed her words into proper, articulate sentences in that moment. Not when her brain felt so fuzzy and so completely and utterly awestruck.

"Yeri, I. . . I think-"

Not allowing for the sentence to be finished, the younger female allowed her heart to lead the way. Yeri kissed her. Soft and slow and Joy tasted like December, like hot chocolate on stormy evenings and crisp autumn air. The mind is a fickle thing. . . With all its twists and turns, with all its neurons firing; -lighting up a storm.

But, no matter that, Yeri loved Joy with a burning intensity; -with the magnitude of summer. Searing, burning, melting the ice inside of the elder female's chest. Yeri awakened that part of the raven haired female that she always wanted to push away, but now, that was the farthest thing from Joy's mind. The brunette's love was too hot, like boiling water poured atop a mountain of snow, but Joy relished in the way that her skin melted slowly, dripping off her bones like candle wax.

But, Joy loved Yeri with the embodiment of winter; -with frigid touches, icy kisses, and a frozen indifference that gave the younger girl chills of bliss and satisfaction. Park Joy proved that ice can burn just as much as a flame. . .

Summer met winter in the midst of autumn, and under the falling leaves and on the outskirts of the chilly winds, they grew fonder. What was left of the warmth was snuffed out by snowflakes, and summer conceded to the bitter cold, giving way to a perfect storm. Whether it was right or wrong, the both of them dove in headfirst, and when the ocean froze over, Joy and Yeri were left huddling under layers of ice, swapping oxygen from one another's lungs and sharing the beating of a heart in sync. Strings pulled taut, skin tinted blue with pre-hyothermia, but their insides set ablaze with the strength of a forest fire.


	4. ❝EPILOGUE.❞

― **_beautiful_**.

there's flecks of stardust within your irises,  
and gold within your veins.  
hope blossoms from the place within your chest  
where sunlight has been granted access to,  
and blooming roses have taken root.  
white petals spread open,  
a green stem's cry of beauty to the world that surrounds it.  
but white is soon tainted with red;  
― red from the wounds that are located in all the places that you would never allow the world to see.

but i assure you,  
you are no less beautiful today than you will be tomorrow,  
and your type of beauty does not fade with given time.  
it defies the test of such,  
lasting long after those around you have faded.  
all the makeup in the world cannot fix an ugly inside,  
and that pure, white rose you thought to be tainted with sin,  
has now grown forth into a garden;  
― granting you the kind of beauty that money could never buy.

♡

❝ **RED FLAVOR.** ❞  
―

**end.**


End file.
